Why did Russia start making new decisions and why did it cancel the sanctions? - Georgia deserved to receive the candidate status a year ago, but the delay of this decision led to the activation of the Russian Federation and to the decisions that are taking place today, - Vice-Speaker of the Parliament Archil Talakvadze said.

In this context, he emphasized that now the main concern should be that Georgia receives the status from the European Union on time, without delay.

According to Talakvadze, the Russian Federation unilaterally imposed sanctions on Georgian citizens and unilaterally made the decision to cancel the visa regime.

"The radical opposition makes absolutely harmful and irresponsible statements. They are practically asking the Government to sanction their compatriots. The Russian Federation unilaterally, without the participation of Georgia, decided to cancel visa-related sanctions. This is criticized by the people who in 2008 abandoned their own population in the war zone, where the Russian attack and occupation took place, abandoned their own soldiers, and after that, when Russia introduced visa restrictions, this political force and their political leader came out and unilaterally canceled the visa regime.

I want to appeal to our compatriots in emigration - the radical opposition is asking the Georgian authorities to impose sanctions on you, which we naturally do not agree with, and the Georgian authorities will not impose sanctions on their compatriots", said Archil Talakvadze.

For information, Russia canceled the visa regime for Georgian citizens. The relevant decree was issued by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. According to Putin's decree, the visa regime will be abolished from May 15. Citizens of Georgia can stay on the territory of Russia without a visa for a period of up to 90 days. In addition, Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on flights to Georgia for Russian airlines.