"Aviascandal" in South Ossetia: everyone blames everyone and is alarmed by improvement in relations between Russia and Georgia
“Azimut” causes a scandal in South Ossetia
Russian airlines “Azimuth” provoked a scandal in South Ossetia. First, this airline, which will operate flights to Georgia, removed from its website mention of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries, and then completely abandoned the “country” column. Now everyone is blaming everyone: Azimuth, Russia, the South Ossetian authorities. The Russian deputy suspected the airline of treason, and in South Ossetia they suspected the deputy himself of sophisticated lobbying for the interests of the West. And behind all this there is one single “vague suspicion” – that Russia, seeking to win Georgia over to its side, is allegedly betraying Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Deputy against “Azimuth”
Deputy of the Russian State Duma from North Ossetia Zurab Makiyev appealed to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, accusing Azimut of treason.
Zurab Makiyev is a native of Georgia and lived in Tbilisi before the start of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict. He sent appeals to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov and the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency, Alexander Neradko, with a request to check the Azimut airline.
Makiyev recalled that Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008 following the results of the August war:
“Probably, in the pursuit of increasing revenues, the Russian carrier is sabotaging the foundations of state foreign policy. This situation can have extremely negative consequences, because, having a similar precedent, tomorrow, in the event of a commercial benefit, they will exclude Crimea, the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions from the Russian Federation.”
The deputy summarized his appeal as follows: “If the carrier deliberately exchanged his conscience (not to mention the law) for money, then the reaction should be more than harsh and biased!”
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Telegram channel against the deputy
At the same time, Makiyev himself was accused of bias and a pro-Georgian position.
Telegram channel kavkaz_leakbez points to Makiyev’s connection with Georgia and reproaches him for insincerity:
“It may seem that deputy Zurab Makiyev is so keen on the agenda that he is ready not to regret his own father for the sake of a red word. After all, it is far from a secret that Zurab Gayozovich himself was born in Tbilisi, and his father comes from the Georgian Kvemo Kartli. And they also love their homeland with devoted love as a family and are sure that the future of Georgia is in alliance with the West, not Russia. And if someone decided that Makiyev opposed the interests of Georgia in his letter, then he was mistaken. In fact, he opposed the interests of Russia, acting in accordance with the Western lobby in Georgia, which demands that there be no flights and visa-free travel between Georgia and the Russian Federation.
“In South Ossetia, they fear their statehood may become the subject of bargaining”
Alik Pukhaev, a blogger living in Russia, also spoke about the abolition of the visa regime for Georgian citizens and the resumption of direct flights between Moscow and Tbilisi. In his opinion, “South Ossetia fears that their statehood may become a subject of bargaining, as it was in 1920 between Russian and Georgian Bolsheviks, as it was in the early 90s, when the communist elite was building a new Georgia and a new Russia.”
In the author’s Telegram channel, Pukhaev writes that he observes “how the number of sympathizers of Georgia is growing in Russia, including in the North Caucasus”:
“North Caucasians, who once viewed our independence project with mild envy, are now disappointed with the way we have disposed of it.”
“If South Ossetia loses its status, it will be only because of its inaction”
Another anonymous Telegram channel covering the political situation in South Ossetia criticizes the current authorities of South Ossetia for their lack of initiative and the lack of an adequate response to the actions of Azimut:
“Why is there no reaction from the official authorities of South Ossetia, where is the reaction of the Foreign Ministry, or should we wait until other Russian companies start removing South Ossetia from the list of countries?”
In fact, there was no official comment on the airline’s actions. Neither the president of South Ossetia, nor the speaker of the parliament spoke about this.
But the deputy and former member of the pro-presidential Nykhas party David Sanakoev stated that:
“Russia has the right to act in its own interests. Now there is such a situation that the economic, social and political ties between South Ossetia and Russia have practically come to naught, and it may turn out that the Georgian presence in these spaces will be much greater than ours.”
Sanakoev believes that if South Ossetia loses its status, “it will be only because of itself, because of its inaction,” and that it should also act in its own interests, more actively promoting them at all possible levels.
Sanakoev also called the erroneous position of some Russian politicians who “think that Georgia can become pro-Russian.” According to Sanakoev, “this is not the case and it will never happen, as they will see again.”
“Azimut” causes a scandal in South Ossetia
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