It was a political decision, I think the opposition is involved - Davitashvili on sanctioning Georgian Airways

The Minister of Economy and Vice Prime Minister of Georgia Levan Davitashvili calls the imposition of sanctions on the Georgian airline Georgian Airways and its founder by Ukraine a politically motivated decision. Like Tamaz Gaiashvili, Levan Davitashvili accused the opposition in imposing sanctions and said that the basis of this decision was their provision of wrong information to Ukraine. As Davitashvili noted, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have an appropriate reaction to Ukraine's decision.

"First of all, it must be clearly stated that this was a really politically motivated decision, because we see that many airlines from many countries fly to Russia, and there was no similar reaction or decision from the Ukrainian authorities in any other case. Therefore, it is sad to say that we saw another very unfriendly decision by the Ukrainian authorities, and we had similar facts in previous cases, when Ukraine imposed so-called sanctions on several citizens of Georgia. It is absolutely unacceptable, it does not fit into the standard of relations between countries that Georgia and Ukraine have. I think that probably , our opposition is also involved, because we know how closely some opposition groups are connected with the Ukrainian authorities, and perhaps this is the basis for this decision, when the information is delivered incorrectly and, accordingly, such decisions are taken that only harm the relations between the two countries and do not improve them in any way. As for the response , as in previous cases, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted to this, and I am sure that there will be an appropriate response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," said Levan Davitashvili.

For information, on July 1, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, signed a decree, according to which sanctions were imposed on Georgian Airwas and its founder Tamaz Gayashvili. Tamaz Gaiashvili responded to Ukraine's decision the next day and called it "absurd and unfair. In addition, Gaiashvili expressed hope that Ukraine's decision would be followed by a "mirror response" from Georgia.