Georgian Government Split on Sanctioning Russia, but Georgian People Overwhelmingly Favor Doing So, Polls Show

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 17 – Some governments around the world support sanctioning Russia for Putin’s war in Ukraine because their people are in lock step with them on this issue. Other governments sometimes act at variance with what their people want. One such case is the Republic of Georgia.

            There senior officials have been divided as to whether the West should sanction Russia for Putin’s actions, with the prime minister declaring that Tbilisi would not join the sanctions regime while the president said that she favored the sanctions the West is putting in place against the Russian Federation.

            But polls conducted by The Caucasus Datablog organization leave no doubt that the Georgian people are not similarly divided. Instead, they favor the imposition of sanctions and want their government to back Ukraine against Russian aggression (oc-media.org/features/datablog-georgians-want-their-government-to-support-ukraine/).

            The analysts who compiled this study say that Georgians overwhelmingly blame Russia or Putin for the war, say that Russia wanted to conquer territory, revive the Soviet Union and block Ukraine from joining NATO, and favor more assistance to Ukraine, including not only humanitarian aid but military assistance as well.