MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. There are no plans to completely ban Russians from flying to Georgia, but the state seeks to guarantee the safety of its citizens, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

“Naturally, it’s impossible to say that people will completely stop traveling to Georgia, and it’s impossible to ban people from travelling to Georgia, no one is going to do this,” Peskov said. He explained that the state can “only recommend citizens take heed of the threats to their personal safety that may arise in Georgia at this time”. In addition, according to him, "measures can be taken to reduce the tourist flow in the interests of ensuring the safety of our citizens."

On June 20, anti-Russian riots broke out in downtown Tbilisi. The pretext for the unrest was attributed to a session of the General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), which was held in the Georgian parliament. In line with the protocol, the Russian delegation’s head, State Duma MP Sergei Gavrilov, who is the IAO President, addressed the delegates from the seat of the parliament speaker. Media reports claimed that Gavrilov had allegedly participated in combat actions in Abkhazia and Transnistria, although he dismissed this as fake news. In protest, the opposition disrupted the event and staged a rally, which culminated in an attempt to storm the parliament’s building. During the riots, some 240 people were hurt and over 300 others were detained.

Flights of Georgian airlines to Russia will be suspended from July 8, according to the Russian Transport Ministry.