Ruling party head hails Russian airline’s’ removal of Georgian occupied regions from its list as “important gesture”

Irakli Kobakhidze, the head of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday hailed the move of a Russia-based Azimuth airlines to remove Georgia’s currently Russian-controlled Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions from its list of countries as an “important gesture”, following a social media turmoil. 

 

Azimuth on Monday was granted the right to conduct direct Georgia-Russia flights, on the heels of Moscow’s move last week to lift travel and visa restrictions with Georgia amid its ongoing aggression against Ukraine. 

 

The company removed the regions, earlier listed as “countries”, from its webpage, after the information went viral and added to the criticism of the Georgian authorities for accepting the flights. 

 

“It is an important gesture that these records have been removed from the website, and there is no basis for speculation, although those who are trying to create a stir around this issue are real speculators,” Kobakhidze said. 

 

He added it was the currently imprisoned former president Mikheil Saakashvili who in 2012 removed visa restrictions for Russians, four years after the Russia-Georgia conflict. 

 

Russia canceled direct flights with Georgia in 2019, following mass protests in Tbilisi sparked by the presence of Russian lawmakers in the Georgian parliament, while it maintained visa restrictions for Georgian nationals since 2000.