Russian FM: Ban on flights to Georgia may be lifted

"The ban on Russian airlines flying to Georgia may be lifted after the necessary preconditions are met," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in an interview with RIA Novosti, according to the local bureau of Report.

He said that Russia takes into account the sanitary-epidemiological situation in one or another country when deciding on resuming flights with individual countries in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The deputy foreign minister added that the political factor related to Georgia should also be taken into account: “The cancellation of direct flights is temporary and can be eliminated. The conditions for this are well-known to Georgia and there is no need to repeat them."

Andrei Rudenko stressed that the ban on flights, which has been in place since July 2019, was taken as a mandatory step in response to the well-known anti-Russian provocations committed by Georgian radicals.