MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. Russia’s decision to suspend flights to Georgia is an adequate response to the existing situation, senior Russian lawmakers said on Friday.
"It’s not the first time that we suspend flights to Georgia. And, again, Tbilisi is to blame for it," said Leonid Slutsky, who heads the Foreign Affairs Committee at the State Duma (lower chamber of the Russian parliament).
"This is an adequate reaction to a blatant provocation of anti-Russian forces and to the violation of commitments by Georgian lawmakers," he told TASS. "Too bad ordinary citizens have to pay for the actions of hatemongers and unwise politicians."
A similar statement was made by Konstantin Kosachev, who heads the Federation Council (upper house) committee on international affairs.
"I fully support the president’s decisions, they are adequate for the current situation, in which Georgian radicals went out of the government’s control and started to pose a real threat to the life and health of Russian citizens in the country," he told TASS. "It is the Georgian government’s responsibility to take comprehensive measures to ensure their safety, in cooperation with the Russian side."
Meanwhile, Kosachev’s first deputy chairman Vladimir Dzhabarov, said flights may resume as soon as the security of Russians in Georgia is guaranteed.
"In order to resume flights to Georgia, the safety of Russians must be guaranteed. I’m sure that the overwhelming majority of Georgians pose no threat to our citizens. But the extremists who now command the crowds that swarm the streets of Tbilisi can of course use the situation to orchestrate anti-Russian provocations, including by committing some kind of crimes against them," he said. "Therefore, in order to avoid such incidents, they should return to their homeland and refrain from visiting the country."
The chairman of the State Duma committee on security, Vasily Piskaryov, described the decision to suspend flights as a ‘forced measure.’
"It is simply unsafe for Russian citizens to currently stay on the territory of that country," he told TASS, adding that on Thursday the Georgian authorities "were either unable or reluctant to ensure the safety of members of the Russian parliamentary delegation and its head Sergei Gavrilov, who had been assaulted verbally and physically by anti-Russian protestors."
"Instead of apologies, the Georgian leadership resorted to hostile statements," the lawmaker continued. "We can only regret those developments, because all efforts made in past years to create neighborly relations were obliterated by the Georgian side."
"Under those circumstances, our prime task is to do our best to help Russian citizens, numerous tourists who are now in Georgia, to return home safely," he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree, which imposes a temporary ban on passenger flights with Georgia from July 8, the Kremlin press service reported on Friday. In addition, tour operators and travel agents are recommended "for the duration of the ban ... to refrain from selling a tourist product that includes transportation (including commercial one) of citizens from the territory of the Russian Federation to the territory of Georgia."
Tbilisi riots
On June 20, several thousand protesters converged on the parliament in downtown Tbilisi, demanding the resignation of the interior minister and the parliament’s speaker, and tried to storm the building. In response, police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators. According to Georgian media, dozens were detained, 240 people suffered injuries, and 55 of them remain in hospitals.
The protests were sparked by an uproar over a Russian State Duma delegation’s participation in the 26th session of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO). On Thursday morning, IAO President Gavrilov opened the session in the Georgian parliament building. Opposition lawmakers were outraged by the fact that Gavrilov addressed the event’s participants from the parliament speaker’s seat. In protest, they did not allow the IAO session to continue.
Later, a decision was taken to wrap up the session and for the Russian delegation to leave the country. Members of the ruling ‘Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia’ party said that they did not know that Gavrilov had been scheduled to open the event, claiming that the protocol office had made a mistake.
Secretary General of the ruling ‘Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia’ party and Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze announced on Friday that Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze had decided to tender his resignation.