Georgian parliament speaker does not share U.S. Dept of State's concern about resumed Russia flights

TBILISI. May 23 (Interfax) - Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili has disagreed with the U.S. Department of State's concern about the resumption of direct flights between Georgia and Russia.

"You will agree that direct flights do not breach any international sanctions. If there is any motivation behind these assessments, this motivation needs to be revealed," Papuashvili told reporters on Tuesday when commenting on a statement by U.S. Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller. The latter said that Washington was concerned about the resumption of direct flights between Georgia and Russia and the risk of sanctions being imposed on Georgian airports and companies.

Georgia has stated what kind of policy it would pursue in regard to Russia over a year ago, and not only now, Papuashvili said.

"On the one hand, we do not ignore international sanctions. Georgia is absolutely honest about that. Secondly, we do not impose bilateral restrictions [on Russia]. The Georgian people agrees with this policy, and the Georgian opposition gave its consent last year," Papuashvili said.

"A flight ban, a stricter visa system and any other decision of this kind is a restriction, and a restriction means an escalation. That would create a situation whose development would be hard to predict. Since no country and no organization guarantees Georgia's military and economic security, it is unfair to demand that the country puts bilateral sanctions [against Russia] in place," he said.