Russia Hopes for 'Normalization' of Georgia Ties

Russia hopes that the victory of Georgia's opposition in parliamentary elections will help normalize Tbilisi's fraught relations with Moscow, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

"Clearly Georgian society voted for change," spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement. "We hope that in the end it will let Georgia move to a normalization and establishment of constructive and respectful relations with their neighbors. Russia would welcome this development."

Diplomatic relations between former post-Soviet allies were cut following a brief Russia-Georgia war in 2008 which ended with Moscow's recognition of two breakaway provinces of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Since then, there has been no presence of Russian diplomats in Tbilisi, and regular spy scandals result in heated exchanges between the foreign ministries.

Flights between Moscow and Tbilisi resumed only in 2010 following the war, and this year President Mikhail Saakashvili abolished Georgian visa requirements for Russian citizens in a unilateral move.

However both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said they will never meet Saakashvili for official talks, calling him a criminal.

Unlike Saakashvili, billionaire tycoon Bidzina Ivanishvili, the head of the Georgian Dream coalition which won Monday's vote, has personal ties to Russia, where he made his colossal fortune in the 1990s and resided until 2004.

Medvedev, who was president during the 2008 war, on Tuesday welcomed Ivanishvili's victory and said his United Russia majority party is "ready to conduct dialogue" with him about the future of bilateral relations.