Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted a ban on flights to Georgia and eased visa requirements for its citizens, taking a major step to facilitate travel between neighbors whose relations have been tense since a 2008 war.
(Bloomberg) — Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted a ban on flights to Georgia and eased visa requirements for its citizens, taking a major step to facilitate travel between neighbors whose relations have been tense since a 2008 war.
The Kremlin gave no immediate explanation for the moves, which removed restrictions imposed in 2019 after protests broke out in Georgia over ties to Russia.
The Foreign Ministry said the changes are in line with efforts to “ease contacts between the people of Russia and Georgia, despite the lack of diplomatic relations.” Those ties were cut off after the war.
Georgia’s government has sought to cultivate links with Russia even as tensions remain over two separatist regions that Russia has occupied since the brief war.
Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Georgia has seen a surge in immigration by Russians fleeing Kremlin crackdowns.
The thaw in relations between the governments in Tbilisi and Moscow has stoked divisions within Georgia, where anti-Russian protesters accuse the authorities of jeopardizing the country’s longstanding efforts to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Lifting the flight ban is “another Russian provocation,” Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said on Twitter.
Zourabichvili sided with protesters who forced the ruling Georgian Dream party to abandon a “foreign agent” bill targeting media and civil society groups in March after violent clashes with police.
Demonstrators labeled the proposal a “Russian law,” emulating one used by the Kremlin to crush political opponents, while the US and the EU warned that relations would be harmed if Georgia passed the measure.
Georgia Targets Foreign Agents as Critics See Tilt to Putin
While Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has condemned Russia’s “unjustified” aggression against Ukraine, his government hasn’t imposed sanctions on Russia and has refused to provide military aid to Kyiv, accusing critics of his policy of seeking to “create a second front in Georgia.” Zourabichvili has been far more outspoken in support of Ukraine.
The flight ban was lifted “because Georgia hasn’t joined in with anti-Russian sanctions,” former Kremlin adviser Sergei Markov said on his Telegram channel.
“Free movement between Russia and Georgia will give a huge boost to the development of the Georgian economy.”
Russian airlines are preparing to resume seven direct flights a week between Moscow and Tbilisi, state-run Tass news service cited the Transport Ministry in Moscow as saying, without indicating when the services may begin.
(Updates with Georgian president in fifth paragraph, more details throughout)
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