Russian airline Azimut cleared for direct flights from Russia to Georgia

Georgia’s government has cleared the Russian airline Azimut for direct flights into the country, TASS reports. Charter flights between Moscow and Tbilisi are set to begin on May 17.

Azimut is the first Russian airline to secure a clearance to conduct direct flights after Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on direct air travel from Russia to Georgia, in place since 2019.

Despite the Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili’s objections, the government, led by the ruling Georgian Dream party, welcomed Putin’s gesture. Georgia’s Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development then stated that it would grant clearance for direct flights to those carriers that aren’t on the international sanction lists.

Earlier, the Georgian authorities said they were considering applications from four other airlines.

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Georgian Dream and the rapprochement with Russia

Georgia’s murky ‘transparency’ bill The ‘foreign agent’ draft law that sparked mass protests in Tbilisi was presented as a solution to the country’s lack of transparency, but the legislation’s real goals are themselves opaque

a year ago