Russia delays resumption of air link with Georgia

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Tbilisi, July 3 (Reuters) Russia today denied clearance for a jet to fly the first regular passenger service between Tbilisi and Moscow after a nine month suspension, but Russian officials said it was just a temporary hitch.

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

Airzena Georgian Airlines announced on Friday it had reached agreement with Russia to fly charter flights in July and possibly in August.

The first plane was to fly from Tbilisi to Moscow today but the airline said Russia had changed its mind at the last minute, grounding the plane.

''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.

In Moscow, though, the Russian government said it stuck by last week's agreement and that only technical problems had caused the delay.

''It's a procedural issue ... and is not political,'' Gennady Loshenov, deputy head of Russia's state aviation agency told reporters. ''The Russian leadership has given its approval (for the flights).'' In April Russia allowed three charter flights between Tbilisi and Moscow over the Easter holiday period and in May Russia started handing out visas once again for Georgians.

Thousands of Georgians live, work and study in Moscow, drawn to the Russian capital by its growing wealth. Summer is one of the biggest travel periods in the year with many Georgians living in Russia returning to see friends and family.

Ex-Soviet 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 GT VV1836

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