The Georgian Airways’ founder has barred the country’s president, Salome Zourabichvili, from using its services after she threatened to boycott the airline over its decision to restart the flights to Russia, according to Russia’s TASS news agency on Sunday. Russia announced this month that it would ease a four-year-old ban on direct flights with Georgia and eliminate a decades-old visa requirement for Georgians visiting Russia. Georgian authorities rebuffed President Salome Zourabichvili’s request to stop the Russian attempt.
Tamaz Gaiashvili, the founder of privately-owned Georgian Airways, was quoted by TASS on Sunday as saying that Zourabichvili was now a “persona non grata” and would be barred from flying until she “apologized before the Georgian people.” Although Georgian officials hailed the return of flights, some Georgians who want the South Caucasus country to distance itself from Moscow in favor of the European Union protested against it on Sunday in central Tbilisi. Zourabichvili did not respond to it right away. Many Georgians are opposed to any rapprochement with Moscow, whose soldiers occupy two separatist areas, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which account for roughly one-fifth of the country’s territory.
Other Georgians, though, are more open to the concept, and the Georgian government has tried in recent years to enhance ties with Moscow, declining to impose sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. President Zourabichvili, whose role is mostly ceremonial and whose relations with the administration are tense, has cautioned that strengthening ties with Russia could jeopardize Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union one day.