It’s early now to speak about resuming flights to Georgia, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, noting that the situation would be monitored.
“The restrictions on flights, the flight ban is an absolutely forced measure, and consequently, the situation will be constantly monitored. As soon as the signs emerge that the situation has normalized for Russian tourists after such Russophobic manifestations, time will come for analyzing this and taking other decisions. Now it is early to speak about this,” Peskov said as reported by Tass News Agency.
The Kremlin spokesman stressed that the resumption of flights to Georgia cannot be ruled out. “Certainly, we hope that sooner or later this will happen,” Peskov said, noting however that given that emotions are running high in the Georgian society and the anti-Russian and Russophobic sentiment, having a large number of Russian tourists in Georgia poses a great risk.
According to Peskov, it is logical that the current anti-Russian sentiment in Georgia has caused a public outcry. “Hideous Russophobic outbursts inevitably trigger a large-scale public reaction,” he noted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has banned Russia’s airlines from flying to Georgia, a day after a Russian lawmaker Sergey Gavrilov’s visit to the country prompted violent clashes between protesters and police in Tbilisi on June 20.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree imposing a temporary ban on flights, including commercial ones, from Russia to Georgia starting July 8.