Georgia, Russia to mull direct air flights
By Jamila Babayeva
Representatives of the Russian and Georgian aviation services will hold a meeting on the restoration of the regular direct flights between the two countries in early April - late May.
The news was announced by Special Representative of Georgian Prime Minister for Russian-Georgian relations Zurab Abashidze.
He noted that he discussed this issue at the last meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin in Prague, on April 16.
"It meets our interest, tourist season is approaching and more flights mean more tourists from Russia," Abashizde noted.
Regular direct air traffic between Russia and Georgia was cancelled in 2006 after the deterioration of relations between the two countries. Air traffic was restored for some time in 2008 and then was interrupted after the 2008 war.
Georgia and Russia, its giant northern neighbor, have maintained no diplomatic relations since a brief war in 2008. Tbilisi broke off relations with Moscow in August 2008 when Moscow crushed a Georgian assault to reassert control over two rebel regions -South Ossetia and Abkhazia- and later recognized the regions. Georgia announced the two unrecognized republics as occupied territories in September 2008.