Putin bans flights to Georgia
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree temporarily prohibiting Russian airlines from carrying out air transportation of Russian citizens from the territory of the Russian Federation to the territory of Georgia from July 8, reports the Kremlin's press service.
The decree that was signed on June 21 recommends tour operators and travel agents to avoid selling the tourist packages that provide the transportation of Russian citizens to Georgia.
The document was adopted by the President "to ensure the national security of the Russian Federation, to protect citizens of the Russian Federation from criminal and other illegal actions".
The Russian government has been instructed to take measures to ensure the return of Russian citizens (and their luggage) who are on the territory of Georgia to Russia.
The decree entered into force from the date of its signing by the Russian President Putin.
Mass protests in Georgia continue for several days. As a result of the protests at the Parliament of Georgia, 240 people were injured.
The anti-Russian rally in Tbilisi began after Russian State Duma Deputy Sergei Gavrilov appeared at the opening session of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy. He opened the meeting sitting in the chair of the Chairman of the Georgian Parliament and addressed the participants in Russian.
The opposition stated that the Georgian authorities had committed an act of national treason because they had admitted and given a place of honor in Parliament to a person who had made statements in support of the independence of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali Region (South Ossetia) and had participated in the war against Georgians in Abkhazia in 1993.
On Friday, the Chairperson of the Georgian Parliament Irakli Kobakhidze resigned because of the mass protests.