Translated material
Flights in reality
Russia and Georgia are restoring air traffic
Russia and Georgia are close to resuming air traffic, which was interrupted on October 2, 2006 during the political crisis . Negotiations between officials responsible for resolving this issue begin today in Moscow.The Georgian delegation, led by the acting head of the National Commission for Transport Regulation, Alexander Chkhikvadze, had to get to Moscow through Turkey. “The ball is now in the Russian half of the field,” he said the day before. “After all, Russia introduced the ban unilaterally.”
Moscow then explained its decision by the debt of Georgian airlines in the amount of $3.6 million for air navigation services in Russian airspace. But Tbilisi had no doubt that the “embargo on heaven” was politicized. On September 29, after the arrest of four Russian officers suspected of espionage in Tbilisi, the Russian Foreign Ministry recalled the ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko. Restrictions were introduced on the issuance of Russian visas. If before this, at least 100 thousand Georgian citizens received them annually, then after the sanctions, visas were issued exclusively in emergency cases.
The Russian Ambassador resumed work on January 23. Immediately there were signs of a warming of relations, not only in the air.
Yesterday, the head of the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Georgia, Valery Vasiliev, told Vremya Novostey that, by decision of a Georgian court, seven Russian sailors from a Russian seiner arrested on January 10 for fishing in the Abkhaz area can return to their homeland. They were initially released on bail of 2 thousand lari (approximately $1,180). Now this amount is counted as a fine. On Monday, four sailors will be sent from Georgia by the Poti-Burgas-Novorossiysk ferry, three will remain on their home ship. And captain Sergei Rybkin continues to serve two months of pre-trial detention; lawyers are trying to free him too.
Tbilisi believes that the restoration of air traffic may be followed by the resumption of the issuance of Russian visas in full. But VN’s sources at the Russian embassy claim that it is too early to talk about this. But at the Tbilisi representative office of Aeroflot we were told that the other day the aviators met with the Russian ambassador and, among other things, the visa issue was discussed. Allegedly, as of February 15, there may already be progress in this direction. Airlines are interested in keeping flights full of passengers.
For now, Aeroflot has added flights to Georgia and back to its schedule from March 24. Negotiations in Moscow will show whether flights can be resumed sooner. Before the closure of the sky, Russian and Georgian companies operated flights on a parity basis six times a week.