Georgia President boycotts local airline over flights to Russia

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili said she will not use the services of the privately owned Georgian Airways following the carrier’s decision to resume commercial flights to Russia.

“I will refrain from using this airline from now on for as long as this company is in the hands of those people who will do anything for money,” Zourabichvili said in a public address on Saturday.

Earlier this week, other Georgian officials welcomed a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to restore air transport links between the two countries, even as the US and the European Union urged the government in Tbilisi to observe sanctions imposed on the Kremlin over the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s first commercial flight in four years landed in Georgia on Friday, spurring anti-Russian protests and stoking concern thawing relations may jeopardize the Caucasian nation’s efforts to join the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 

A Georgian Airways plane landed in Moscow earlier on Saturday, according to the Tbilisi airport spokeswoman Nino Tsivtsivadze.

Zourabichvili also responded to reports that the Kvareli Lake resort in eastern Georgia is hosting a wedding organized by family members of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. 

The wedding party will not take place in Georgia, the president said in her address, adding that the family had left the country following the marriage registration.

The police have detained as many as 16 protesters at a rally outside Kvareli Lake denouncing the resort’s decision to host the wedding, according to activists present and police statements.