U.S. Ambassador Kelly Degnan responded to a question about Moscow’s decision to restore flights with Georgia and said that while it is not for the United States to say whether this will impact Georgia’s chances for the EU candidacy, “it does raise the question as to why Putin would give this to Georgia.” Ambassador Degnan noted that no one believes Putin cares about the convenience of Georgian travelers.
Responding to the question on why in 2019 the U.S. Embassy had called for the restoration of air links with Russia, Ambassador Degnan said there is an important difference in the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine in the meantime.
„I would say an important difference between today and 2019 is the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine. Again, Russia has destabilized the entire region with this unjustified, brutal war that is purely aimed at taking Ukrainian territory and trying to eliminate Ukraine’s identity. That is a significant change from before.
Another important detail is that Georgia doesn’t rely on Russian tourism, and Russian business as much as it did in 2019. We saw after the ban was put into effect a surge in visitors from many other countries. Georgia does not have to rely and become dependent on Russia again. That is giving Russia dangerous leverage over your economy, and we have seen in many other countries how Russia will use that against your country when it wants to.
Georgia does not need to fall into that trap again. On the sanctions, We need more information as to how the Georgian government is going to respond to this, what the details of these potential flights are going to be before we can establish whether there are export control or sanctions that apply to this situation, but I would imagine that there will be some“, - the US Ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan said.
Russia canceled the visa regime for Georgian citizens. The relevant decree was issued by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. According to Putin's decree, the visa regime will be abolished from May 15. Vladimir Putin also lifted the ban on flights to Georgia for Russian airlines.
