Ruling party member rejects Moscow’s claims on beforehand talks on resumed flights

Beka Davituliani, a member of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Thursday rejected the claims by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about talks with Tbilisi to resume direct flights earlier this year. 

 

Lavrov claimed “when the Kremlin saw that the current authorities of Tbilisi were interested in the normalization of relations, it agreed to resume flights with Georgia”.

 

“There were no negotiations on this issue, there were no negotiations between the government of Georgia and Russia, therefore, Lavrov is trying to portray the decisions made at the level of air transport institutions, for example, if the plane lands, as a negotiation between the governments and thereby damage the current government of Georgia, because he knows that every positive assessment of him is perceived negatively in Georgia and that’s true,” Davituliani said.

 

In his press comments Lavrov claimed “we agreed with Mr. Gharibashvili’s Government to resume flights and canceled the visa regime , since the visa-free regime for Russian citizens has existed for a long time and many of our citizens have used it”. 

 

The international community has reacted to resumed Russia-Georgia flights negatively, with Tbilisi claiming it was ‘Moscow’s” decision and its rejection could spark security threats.