Georgia says Russia not ready to restore air links

TBILISI, July 3 (Reuters) Russia has rescinded a promise to allow a Georgian airline to fly between Tbilisi and Moscow this summer, a company official said today, a service that would have provided the first regular air link since October.

Moscow severed air, sea and postal links with smaller neighbour Georgia last October after a spying row triggered a sharp deterioration in relations between Moscow and Tbilisi's pro-Western government.

Airzena Georgian Airlines announced last Friday that it had reached agreement with Russia to fly charter flights in July and possibly in August. However, today the airline said Russia has changed its mind.

''On Friday we got Russia's consent. But now they say nothing was decided and don't see any such decision being made in the near future. They insist on the continuation of negotiations,'' Aka Sanikidze, director of Marketing Department of Airzena, told Reuters.

Russia's Ministry of Transport press service declined to comment.

Airzena said it was ready to start charter flights from July 3.

In April Russia allowed three charter flights between Tbilisi and Moscow over the Easter holiday period. In May Russia started handing out some visas once again for Georgians.

Thousands of Georgians live, work and study in Moscow, drawn to the Russian capital by its burgeoning wealth.

Former Soviet state Georgia says the Kremlin is punishing it for its push to join NATO and the European Union. Russia says Tbilisi's policies in the region are aggressive and it is failing to be a good neighbour to Russia.

REUTERS PD PM1436