There is nothing scandalous in the audio recording, Karasin asked me for my opinion and I confirmed that it was not appropriate to start talking about the restoration of air traffic - the principle decision to restore flights was made by the Russian side independently, Zurab Abashidze, adviser to the Prime Minister on relations with Russia, said.

Zurab Abashidze responded to the audio recording disseminated by "Cyber Kmara".

According to Abashidze, the "principle decision" to resume flights with Georgia was made independently by the Russian side, and "there is nothing scandalous in the audio recording".

"That I had a telephone conversation with Grigory Karasin, there is nothing new about it. For this purpose, the so-called Prague format was created since 2012, namely to discuss transport, trade and humanitarian issues. It has been a year and 8 months since we talked with him about these and other topics. The telephone conversation, which they leaked, took place in March of last year.

He asked me for my opinion and I confirmed that it was not appropriate to start talking about the restoration of air traffic between the two countries. This is the proof that the principle decision to restore flights with Georgia was taken independently by the Russian side later, which is what we have been saying all along.

After this conversation, this topic was no longer discussed with Grigory Karasin," Abashidze said.

For information, "Cyber Kmara" released an audio recording on YouTube, which, according to them, depicts a conversation between the special representative of the Prime Minister, Zurab Abashidze, and the head of the International Affairs Committee of the Council of the Russian Federation, Grigory Karasin, about the possibility of resuming flights between Russia and Georgia in March 2022.

According to the audio recording, Grigory Karasini is interested in the opinion of Zurab Abashidze, as to how appropriate it is to start negotiations on the mentioned issue in the said period.