Russian FM: Moscow ‘ready’ to restore ties if Tbilisi ‘stops using Russia as a card’
Russian FM says Moscow is ready to restore relations with Georgia if Tbilisi is ready for this. Photo: ABC.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that if Tbilisi ‘stops using Russia as a card to maintain western support’ Moscow is ready to restore ties with Georgia which were suspended after the Russia-Georgia 2008 war.
Russia is ready for this if Georgia wants to live a normal life with us as a neighbor,” RIA Novosti has cited Lavrov as saying during his recent speech at Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
Lavrov also said that Russia was ready to cancel the visa regime for Georgian citizens back in 2019. However, the protests in Tbilisi that year, which were sparked by the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian parliament, hampered the process.
The Georgian government has stated many times that the restoration of diplomatic relations with Russia is possible only after the country withdraws its forces from 20 per cent of Georgian territory.
Trade and economic relations were restored between Russia and Georgia back in 2013, shortly after the Georgian Dream government came to power.
Russia has not yet restored direct flights with Georgia which it stopped following the June 2019 events in Tbilisi.
Georgians took to the streets in the summer of 2019 after Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov took the seat of the Georgian parliament speaker during an international religious conference in Tbilisi.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that he would resume direct flights with Georgia, which were suspended in July 2019, as a majority of Georgians ‘have seen the negative sides’ of the ‘provocation staged’ in the Georgian parliament on June 20.He said that the Georgian opposition deliberately sparked unrest in the Georgian parliament after the address of Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov from the seat of the Georgian parliament speaker that day.
Flights between Georgia and Russia have been banned starting today following the recent decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ban on flights was announced after protesters in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi tried to storm the Georgian parliament on June 20 when a Russian MP addressed a forum of politicians at the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy from the speaker’s chair.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gregory Karasin says that the Russian government was ready to abolish visa requirements for Georgia. However, the protests in Tbilisi, which were sparked by the presence of Russian MPs in the Georgian parliament, postponed the possibility, he said.
Georgian opposition MPs have interrupted the 26th Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) after a Russian MP and president of the assembly, Sergey Gavrilov addressed the audience from the Georgian parliamentary speaker’s chair earlier today.
US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan has responded to the recent statement of Russian FM Sergey Lavrov on preparedness to restore relations with Georgia, stating that Georgia ‘has many times heard’ such messages from Russia and they are not trustworthy until Russia withdraws its troops from the Georgian territory. She said that Russia ‘has taken no steps so far’ to de-occupy Georgia’s Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions.
Maka Botchorishvili, the Chair of the European Integration Committee of the Georgian Parliament, on Wednesday responded to the Russian Government lifting its ban on flights with Georgia and visa requirements for citizens of the country by saying the moves were designed to “create obstacles” for Georgia’s European integration.
Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili, on Wednesday, said Georgia remained committed to its policy regarding international sanctions against Russia, imposed on the country for its invasion of Ukraine and would continue “close cooperation” with its partners after the Russian Government lifted its ban on flights with Georgia and visa requirements for citizens of the country.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili, on Wednesday, responded to the Russian Government lifting its ban on flights with Georgia and visa requirements for citizens of the country by saying it was a “sole decision” of official Moscow and the Georgian side “could not have any influence” on it.