Russian Soft Power and Georgia

The Cicero Foundation has published a new short paper entitled “Shaping Georgia’s Future After the Russian Invasion.”  I have not given the document a careful read yet, but I have pulled the following idea from the conclusion about what Russia can do to repair the deep-seated animosity held toward Moscow by an overwhelming majority of the Georgian population since the war – copy Obama’s “over the head” style outreach:   “Russia should adopt a new Georgia policy, one that would temper Moscow’s passion for “regime change” in Tbilisi and would instead employ a direct outreach to the Georgian people. (As examples of such “over-the-head” approaches, they cite President Barack Obama’s video message to Iranians celebrating Nowrus and easing restrictions on travel and money transfers to Cuba).“

Interesting, but I can’t think of any other example of a soft power approach in Russian foreign policy.  It’s hard to imagine this government going for the warm-and-fuzzy thing.