Russian airlines will no longer have the right to fly to Georgia from July 8, according to a decree signed Friday by Vladimir Putin in the aftermath of violent clashes between police and demonstrators protesting the intervention of a Russian deputy in the Parliament of this Caucasian country.
Temporary ban from July 8th
"From July 8, 2019, Russian airlines have temporarily banned flights from the territory of the Russian Federation to the territory of Georgia," said the decree, published on the site of the Kremlin.
In Tbilisi on Friday, at least 15,000 people responded to the opposition's appeal and found themselves in front of the Georgian parliament, according to an AFP journalist. Some were blindfolded in support of protesters who had been shaken the day before in clashes with the police, and most were demanding an end to the influence of the oligarch Bidzina Ivanichvili, founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party and often described as real strong man of the country.
Speaking to the crowd, Grigol Vachadzé, leader of the main opposition party, the United National Movement (MNU) created by former exiled president Mikheil Saakashvili, called for early parliamentary elections, electoral reform and resignation from the Minister of the Interior.
Complicated relations between the two countries
The unrest began on Thursday, when around 10,000 people gathered in front of the parliament to protest the intervention of a Russian deputy, Sergei Gavrilov, from the seat of the speaker of the assembly. Many felt it was shocking as the two countries clashed in a short war in 2008 during a Russian military intervention in Georgia, and that Russia maintains troops in two Georgian pro-Russian separatist regions bordering its territory.
As protesters tried to enter the parliament, clashes left 240 people injured, including 160 protesters and 80 policemen, and led to 305 arrests. These demonstrations quickly turned into a more global movement against the domination in the country of the Georgian dream of Bidzina Ivanichvili. Among the signs held by demonstrators, some said "Stop the USSR" while others questioned the police: "Do not shoot us, we are your children".
A blow to Georgian tourism
While the Kremlin denounced after Thursday's clashes a "Russophobic provocation", the decree signed by Vladimir Putin, officially for security reasons, is likely to hit hard the Georgian tourist sector. Its natural landscapes, its culinary traditions but also the proximity and the possibility of going there without a visa make Georgia a favorite destination for Russian tourists.
The Georgian President Salomé Zourabichvili, who was released on the eve of Belarus yesterday, admitted Friday that the Georgian authorities had made a mistake by inviting a Russian deputy to speak in Parliament at an international meeting on orthodoxy. "It shocked part of our population," she said in a video address on Friday, adding that she is ready to "meet all the political forces" in the country to find a way out of the crisis. As a first consequence of this turmoil, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze, resigned on Friday.