The general director of the state Belarusian airline Belavia, Igor Cherginets, does not want his company’s planes to start flying to Crimea.
He admitted this to Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We won’t fly to Crimea for now. There must be political recognition of Crimea as a Russian state,” Cherginets said.
He made it clear that even if Alexander Lukashenko recognizes the Russian status of Crimea, Belavia flights to the peninsula may not resume.
“There will be a political decision - we will watch. There is also a commercial side to the issue. If you look at the history of Belavia flights to the Ukrainian Crimea, we carried out flights intermittently. Sometimes we fly, sometimes we don’t fly. That is, passengers, then there are no passengers. They raised prices at the airport - we don’t fly. We’ve lowered it and we’re flying,” said Cherginets.
At the same time, speaking about Russian cities where he would like to open flights, the director of Belavia named Krasnodar and Sochi, because “Belarusians really want the sea.”
“I’m really looking forward to increasing the number of flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Now we operate a flight to St. Petersburg once a week. But businessmen need to fly and return. Before the pandemic, we operated flights to St. Petersburg 5 times a day. Now we fly to Moscow 6 times a week. Previously, Belavia alone had 11 flights a day. Plus 9 flights from Aeroflot. Plus we are not given permission to fly to Sochi and Krasnodar. Belarusians want the sea,” said Cherginets.
When, in response, Soloviev suggested flying to Crimea, his Belarusian interlocutor suddenly began to yearn for Ukraine.
“I still hope that the common sense of this government, administration, and the Dovzhenko film studio will change, and we will still return to Ukraine. I really want to return to Kiev, I love Kiev, I love Lviv, I love skiing, ”Chegrinets said.
During the interview, his laptop was closed twice, moreover, every time when it came to his love for Ukraine. The director of "Belavia" at the very beginning stressed that his surname is Ukrainian. He said that after the unscheduled landing of the Irish plane, which became the reason for an international scandal, he received a call from Kiev and asked to refuel the liner that had unexpectedly landed in Minsk. He also boasted that they were calling him with words of support from Ukraine.
Earlier, Belavia signed an advertising contract with Sergei Mikhalk, who settled in Ukraine as the ex-leader of the Lyapis Trubetskoy group, who has recently professed radical nationalist views.