In an interview with Globalnews.ge, Stephen Nix, the Senior Director for Eurasia at the International Republican Institute, stated that the Georgian people want to be a part of the European Union, and the polls conducted by the organization prove that the anti-Western disinformation campaign did not influence their choice.

"We were watching that very closely to see if this anti-Western propaganda and disinformation would have any effect on the numbers. However, support for EU membership and leadership remains extremely high. So, once again, the Georgian people want to be a part of the West. As part of that, we see some very important trends regarding Russia. The vast majority of Georgians, 77%, feel that Russia poses an existential threat to their security. This is a significant number. Additionally, polling data shows that Georgians perceive Russia as posing an internal threat, as 73% of Georgians do not want the government to allow Russian citizens to move to Georgia to set up businesses or open bank accounts. There is a real question about what exactly these Russian citizens are doing. They do not seem to be applying for Georgian citizenship; they want to remain Russians but stay in the country. This raises questions about their intentions. Therefore, I think it's incumbent upon the government, based on this polling data, to scrutinize what Russia is doing internally and to guard against the external threat. Recently, Russia announced that it is going to build and construct a naval base in Abkhazia, and they are doing this for a specific reason. The Ukrainian armed forces are chasing the Russian Black Sea Fleet out of service. Russia currently has nowhere to place its ships and cannot move them to Novorossiysk and other ports, as those are not deepwater ports. The Russian Navy has to anchor its warships off the coast of cities. They are looking for a deepwater port, and they believe they have found one in Abkhazia. This will pose not just a threat to Ukraine, but the very fact that Georgian territory can be used as a launching point against other countries militarily is a grave concern based on the data in Georgia. I believe the data tells us that the Georgian people want the government to continue trying to maintain good relations with Russia, while also recognizing that Russia poses a grave military threat. Russia not only occupies 20% of Georgia's territory but could potentially pose a military threat to Georgia in the future. This is an important point. Despite some disinformation suggesting that the West poses a threat to Georgia, it is clear from the polling that the Georgian people perceive any threat, whether external or internal, as originating directly from the Russian Federation. One feature of a democracy is that the government is responsive to the people. The people elect a government to represent their interests. So the expectation is, government leaders will take this into account in formulating their policy towards Russia", - said Stephen Nix, the Senior Director for Eurasia at the International Republican Institute.