About 60% of Russia's Citizens Believe Russian-Georgian Relations Have Deteriorated Lately

During a social poll conducted by the Public Opinion foundation, 59% of all respondents said they thought relations between Russia and Georgia had lately deteriorated. About 20% of the respondents believed nothing had changed.

As to the reasons of such deterioration of relations, 30% believed it was due to the harboring by Georgia of Chechen militants, 9% said the reason was a general anti-Russian sentiment among Georgians and Georgia's demonstrative gravitation toward the US. Most Russian citizens still appear to believe this position purely governmental and political while most Georgians are friendly toward Russia.

The total number of respondents in this all-Russian social poll was 1,500.