A list released by a Russian-state run research institute has again listed South Ossetia as the ‘friendliest’ neighbour in terms of communication, followed by Abkhazia. The rating of Georgia rose compared to 2024, while the ratings of Armenia and Azerbaijan both fell.
The list is released annually by the National Research Institute for the Development of Communication, and covers the entire post-Soviet world.
South Ossetia received a rating of 95.9 out of 100, up from 94.8 the previous year, while Abkhazia’s was 90.5, up from 75.9 in 2024.
Georgia’s rating also increased to 19.4, compared to 15.1 in 2024.
The institute cited several factors for the higher rating, including the maintenance of some form of contacts, the refusal to enact sanctions against Russia, and a focus on not ‘being drawn into war’, most likely referring to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
‘The agenda in [Georgian] government media is driven primarily by domestic political objectives, not an anti-Russian agenda’, said the institute’s Deputy Research Director Valentina Komleva.
Armenia’s score dropped from 51.5 in 2024 to 49.8 in 2025, while Azerbaijan’s fell from 54.7 to 48.4.
As with previous years, rounding out the bottom tier was Ukraine in last place, followed by the Baltic states and Moldova. Their respective ratings all fell from the previous year, with Ukraine going from -98.5 to -99, Estonia from –88.9 to -95.2, Latvia from -84.5 to -92.6, Lithuania from -82.9 to -92.4, and Moldova from -25.3 to -48.9.
For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.
Rasmus Canbäck
