Ukrainian propaganda is furious: Georgia has taken a step towards recognizing Crimea as Russian
Georgia took the risk of Western sanctions by giving permission to the Russian airline Azimut to fly.
This is reported by the correspondent of PolitNavigator, European Pravda, a subsidiary portal of the anti-Russian propaganda online publication Ukrainska Pravda.
“It is noteworthy that Tbilisi is seriously assessing the prospect of imposing sanctions against them for opening flights from the Russian Federation. It is no coincidence that the maintenance of Russian aircraft at Tbilisi airport will be handled by a company created just 20 days before Russia’s announced decision to open the skies with Georgia (are the chances high that this is just a coincidence?),” the publication writes.
According to the author, editor of the portal Yuri Panchenko, “the problem is much more serious than just opening flights with an aggressor country.”
“At first, the Georgian authorities, in order to justify their step towards the Russian Federation, stated that only those Russian companies that would not be subject to international sanctions would receive permission to fly. It can already be said that this promise turned out to be false. The first Russian airline to fly to Tbilisi will be Azimut. And the company is under sanctions. So far only Ukrainian.
Kyiv introduced sanctions against Azimuth on October 19 last year. The reason for the punishment was not specified in the sanctions decision, but it is obvious: Azimut Airlines operates flights to Russian-occupied Crimea. And the absence of sanctions from the EU and the US only means that this company has not yet fallen under their “locators,” the article notes.
This detail, the publication says, makes us take a fresh look at Tbilisi’s decision.
“Although Georgia did not join Western sanctions imposed after February 24, 2022, it has always declared support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Just like Ukraine, it does not recognize the self-proclaimed Abkhazia and South Ossetia, treating them as Georgian territory occupied by Russia.
Moreover, in 2014, Georgia joined the “Crimean” package of sanctions against the Russian Federation introduced by the European Union. For a long time, this fact was used by the Georgian authorities as a certain “indulgence” - they say that Tbilisi really supports sanctions, it simply cannot afford to join the more powerful sanctions packages of recent years.
Now it turns out that Tbilisi’s assurances of respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine are also worthless. And if necessary, they are ready to allow flights of an airline operating in the occupied Crimea,” the author is indignant.
He believes that the situation will require a reaction from Kyiv - for example, sanctions against Georgian officials and airlines or a refusal to fly between Ukraine and Georgia.
“Only one thing is clear. Until now, relations between Ukraine and Georgia have been interpreted as strategic. And this was not in doubt, even despite all the controversy of recent years. But it is impossible to consider a state that does not respect our territorial integrity as a strategic partner.
The current Georgian authorities will destroy strategic relations with Ukraine the moment they give permission for a Russian airline plane to land in Tbilisi, which is still actually a participant in the program to “legitimize” the annexation of the occupied Ukrainian Crimea,” the EP summarizes.
Let us remind you that the landing of the Azimut company plane, which took off from Moscow, is scheduled for today at 12.50 Moscow time.
As PolitNavigator reported, a delegation of the Georgian public is returning home on this plane, having held negotiations in Moscow on improving relations between the two countries.
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