Russia lifts visa regime and allows flights with Georgia

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili calls these Russian decisions a “provocation”. Moscow announced on Wednesday May 10 the lifting of its visa regime with Georgia and authorized the resumption of flights to this Caucasian country, to which it was opposed during a war in 2008.

According to a Russian presidential decree, Georgian citizens will be able, from May 15, to enter Russia and stay there without a visa for stays of less than 90 days, with the exception of stays for professional reasons. In a separate decree, the Kremlin lifted the ban, in place since 2019, on Russian airline flights to Georgia.

These two decisions will “in line with our principled approach for a progressive facilitation of exchanges and contacts” between the citizens of the two countries, justified in a statement the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy.

Moscow’s announcement comes as Georgia was rocked in March by major protests in opposition to a bill denounced as a copy of a Russian “foreign agents” law. The latter is used in Russia for the repression of critics of the Kremlin. After massive demonstrations marked by clashes with the police, the Georgian government had reversed and withdrawn this project.