Russia Names Terms for Restoring Flights between Russia and Georgia

In an interview with Russian media RIA Novosti, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko named the country’s terms for restoring the flights to Georgia. Rudenko stated that the flight ban will be lifted only after the “essential measures” are taken by the Georgian state.

In particular, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said that the air traffic will be restored once the situation is stabilized, the ‘Russophobic’ campaign is stopped and the Russian citizens are no longer in danger in Georgia.

Rudenko also voiced the Russian state’s position that the ban on direct flights with Georgia was a temporary compulsory measure taken by the government in response to the ‘anti-Russian provocation’ that took place in Georgia in June of 2019.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree banning direct flights with Georgia on July 8, 2019. This action was a response to anti-occupation protests in Tbilisi that started on June 20, after Sergei Gavrilov, a deputy of the Russian Duma from the Communist Party, led the session of Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy from the Chairman’s chair in the Parliament of Georgia earlier that day.

By Nini Dakhundaridze