CRRC Survey Shows Georgians Want Government to Support Ukraine More
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
The social survey conducted by the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) survey studied the views of the Georgian population on the war in Ukraine. The polls showed the majority of the population (80%) blames the Russian Federation and President Vladimir Putin for starting the war: asked who holds the most responsibility for the war in Ukraine, 43% of the surveyees name Russia, while 37% say Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Public opinion polls show that the support of citizens for the Ukrainian people is quite high. The majority of respondents (61%) believe that the Georgian government should increase its support for Ukraine. 32% of the population think that the government is sufficiently supportive of Ukraine, while an extremely small part of the respondents (2%) think that the Georgian government should not support Ukraine at all.
The population was also asked which step taken by the Georgian government to help Ukraine would be acceptable or unacceptable to them. 85% approve of humanitarian aid delivery; 79% support the reception of refugees, 86% approve of financial assistance; 42% support the permission of Georgian volunteers to go to fight in Ukraine; 40% of respondents think that citizens of the Russian Federation should be restricted from entering Georgia; 31% support the supply of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
As for Georgia joining the sanctions imposed by the West, 39% of the population believe that Georgia should join all sanctions against Russia, 27% of respondents think that the country should join some sanctions, while only 19% of the population believe that Georgia should not join sanctions at all. Asked whether sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine should be tightened by the European Union, the United States and a number of other countries, 71% of the population said they should be.
The poll also finds that the Georgian population is broadly supportive of President Salome Zurabishvili’s performance in relation to the war, while being significantly less approving of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili in the same context. In particular, the majority of the population (64%) positively assess the recent actions of the President in connection with the Russia-Ukraine war. It should be noted that among them were supporters of both the ruling party and the opposition parties.
For comparison, the majority of respondents (42%) negatively assess the recent actions of the Parliament of Georgia and only 34% of the population think of it positively.
The actions of Gharibashvili in connection with the Russia-Ukraine war are positively assessed by 41% of the respondents, and badly and very badly by 39% of the population. In the case of the PM, the positive assessments are mainly from the supporters of the ruling party.
75% of the population supports Georgia's accession to the European Union, 70% - NATO membership, and 75% of citizens are partially or completely opposed to the country joining the Eurasian Economic Union.
Survey also asked the respondents which of the following parties would they vote for if the elections were held tomorrow,
The interest was distributed as follows: Ruling party Georgian Dream - 22%; I do not know - 18%; I would not vote for anyone and cross out everyone - 16%; United National Movement - 10%; I wouldn’t take part in the elections - 4%; Party for Georgia - 3%; Lelo - 3%; Girchi - more freedom - 2%; Kremlin-friendly Alliance of Patriots - 2%. Rest 20% refused to answer this question.
Note that field work was conducted on March 7-10, telephone survey was conducted by random number generation, 1092 subscribers were selected and the response rate reached 24%, while error rate stands at 2.96%.
It has been 21 days since Russia has been conducting full-scale military operations on the territory of Ukraine - not only military facilities are being bombed, but also residential houses and hospitals. The world imposes sanctions to stop Russian aggression, and Georgia does not join them on the grounds of ‘national interests.’
