UNDERSTANDING RUSSIA'S SOFT POWER BEHAVIOR IN GEORGIA AFTER THE RUSSO-GEORGIAN WAR

The aim of this paper is to explore Russia's soft power behavior, specifically the explicit or implicit nature of its soft power strategy and actions toward Georgia after the Russo-Georgian War of 2008. To analyze this issue the research tends to focus on the insight proposed by Craig Hayden and discuss it according to three kinds of soft power behavior presented by Joseph S. Nye. Based on the primary and secondary sources the article establishes the context of the modern Georgian foreign policy in which Russia's soft power is on the rise. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods the paper discusses Russia's soft power agenda, its principal means and primary goal in Georgia. Overall, research results suggest that in the first decade after the Russo-Georgian War of 2008 Russia's soft power strategy conceptualization toward Georgia has an implicit nature, but its actions through the anti-Western propaganda narrative in media are explicitly implemented.