Relations with Russia are key to Georgia's stability and cohesion, opposition leader Nino Burdzhanadze told RIA Novosti in a video interview on Tuesday.
Activists took to the streets in Georgia for a fourth day of protests on Tuesday as calls for President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign continue.
Relations between Russia and Georgia have dwindled since Saakashvili's election in 2004, reaching an ultimate low in 2008, when the two countries fought a short war over two breakaway Georgian republics.
"Any Georgian leadership that supports its country and wants the country to be stabile and united, must hold talks with the Russian side and the Russian government," said Burdzhanadze, who heads the opposition People's Assembly party and is also a parliamentary speaker. "We need to try to normalize relations with Russia, although it will not be easy."
Burdzhanadze announced on Sunday the start of a revolution in Georgia. She said on Tuesday the revolution must be carried out by the Georgian people, with "no outside interference."
However she admitted that ethnic Georgians living in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan or any other country should be given a say on who next rules the country.
Saakashvili was elected president in a landslide in 2004 after the Rose Revolution, but his popularity has waned since a series of corruption scandals in 2007 and the destructive 2008 war with Russia.
Russia has a strategic interest in improving relations with its southern neighbor, since the country is one of the few obstacles standing in the way of its 15-year bid to join the World Trade Organization.
The People's Assembly announced earlier on Tuesday that they plan to gather on downtown Tbilisi's Freedom Square on Wednesday to disrupt an official Independence Day parade.
MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti)
