According to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko, Russia is offering Georgia a deal with the devil. On his Facebook, Nikolenko comments on Putin’s decision of May 10, according to which a visa-free regime is introduced for Georgian citizens and direct flights between Russia and Georgia are restored.
Nikolenko emphasizes that Ukraine views these decisions by Putin as political compensation for the refusal of the current Georgian government to join the anti-Russian sanctions and as a slowdown in European integration.
“Tbilisi’s course towards the settlement of relations with Moscow is taking place against the background of Russia’s occupation of 20% of the territory of Georgia, the creeping “borderization”, the kidnapping of Georgian citizens, the gross violation of human rights and freedoms in the occupied territories, and the filling of Georgia with Russian citizens. The Kremlin is making concessions to Tbilisi, not taking responsibility for the grief it has caused the Georgian people.
In 2008, Russian planes were flying to Georgia to bomb civilians. Now they are planning to bomb the European future of Georgians,” Nikolenko writes.
According to him, Russia is not interested in Georgia’s accession to the European Union and NATO, in its prosperity and development. Moscow’s goal is to create impossible conditions for progress, and this has been proved by the experience of Belarus, whose sovereignty and independence were absorbed into the Russian Federation.
“The policy of rapprochement with the aggressor, as expected, does not find support among Georgian politicians and the population, who have repeatedly expressed their position publicly, especially at protests.
We express our solidarity and support to the Georgians in their legitimate aspiration to build a successful European state within internationally recognized borders.
We call on the Georgian government to synchronize its policy towards Russia with the policy of the European Union, and also to refrain from actions that exclude the movement of Georgia into Europe,” Nikolenko says.
On May 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a document on the abolition of the visa regime for citizens of Georgia and the resumption of direct flights between Russia and Georgia.
An exception to the visa-free regime is “citizens entering the Russian Federation for work or for a period of more than 90 days, including for the purpose of obtaining education.”
The visa regime between Russia and Georgia has been operating unilaterally since 2000, and direct flights have been discontinued since July 2019.
