28 December 2009, 19:00
Russia's MFA: Georgian authorities hamper flights to Russia
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Russian Federation has accused Georgia of unwillingness to address issues of direct Moscow-Tbilisi flights.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Russian Ministry of Transports had sent another inquiry to Georgia on ensuring flight safety and on the presence of all the necessary permits in the "Georgian Airways" company, which had addressed Russia on a number of charter flights from Tbilisi to Moscow on the New Year holidays.
As reported by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Transports, the Ministry had granted a permit to the Georgian airline to make charter flights on December 29 and 30 on the route Tbilisi-Moscow-Tbilisi and Tbilisi-St Petersburg-Tbilisi, as the "RBC" reports.
The Georgian aviation authorities confirmed that the "Georgian Airways" belongs mainly to the Georgian party and has no debts for navigation services before Russia.
Meanwhile, as stated in the comment of Andrei Nesterenko, official spokesman of Russia's MFA, "today, the letters of the Russian Ministry of Transports were returned by Georgia without consideration and a far-fetched demand to send them again via the embassy of Switzerland, which represents Russia's interests in Georgia," as the "Gazeta.Ru" quotes.
"Frank protraction and bureaucratic pettifogging make impossible the timely settling of organizational problems of these air flights, so anticipated by people in Russia and Georgia. It looks like this being just the aim of the official Tbilisi. In such situation, all the responsibility for disruption of this important humanitarian action is on the Georgian authorities," Mr Nesterenko has noted.
