Russia-Georgia direct flights not to be restored until 2020 elections, Russian diplomat says
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Thursday, August 15
Russian media Izvestia cites a Russian diplomat (not identified) as saying that direct flights between Georgia and Russia, suspended from July 8, will be resumed before the 2020 parliamentary elections in Georgia.
“Air traffic between the two countries will not resume until at least parliamentary elections of October 2020, until the situation is not changed substantially.”
“The Georgian authorities have ignored ’Moscow’s demand to guarantee the safety and security of Russian tourists. Russophobic hysteria has not stopped,” a source told the agency.
The agency cited the head of the largest Russian travel union Yuri Barzkin as saying that that the flow of tourists from Russia to Georgia has decreased by 70 percent.
“Russian citizens arrive in Georgia by land transport or through a third country,” he said.
The ban on direct flights to Georgia, which was initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 21, came into force on July 8.
The Russian Duma also demanded the banning of Georgian products and freezing of remittances. However, Putin said that he “respects the Georgian people,” and refused to do so, adding that “radical, opposition forces were to blame in triggering the tension” between the two countries, [which have no diplomatic relations since the Russia-Georgia 2008 war].
Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov, who is the president of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, took the seat of the Georgian parliament speaker on June 20 to address the international forum.
Georgians took to the streets in the same day, stating that the MP from the country which occupies 20 percent of the Georgian territories must not have been allowed to take the high tribune.
Russian MPs had to leave Georgia amid protests, and the ban was shortly imposed for “mistreating” the Russian legislators.
Moscow says the ban ‘is not a sanction and is temporary.’
