The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, commented on May 11 regarding the cancellation of the visa regime with Georgia and the restoration of direct flights 

with Russia, “From a humanitarian point of view, everything and every decision that will make life, movement, and doing business easier for our citizens are, of course, positive and welcome.”

Garibashvili repeated that 1 million ethnic Georgians live in Russia, who have family members, relatives, and relatives in Georgia, and that "it is very important to facilitate movement, their movement, the arrival of their relatives, etc." He also added that in addition to the fact that the restoration of direct flights with Russia will remove "huge inconvenience" and expense for Georgian citizens in terms of movement, it is also a constituent part of trade and economic relations, “one small component, a detail, not the main one.”

"We have trade and economic relations with Russia, it is the merit of our government that trade with Russia has also been restored, and the previous government strived for this, for which they did everything," he emphasized, adding that many other countries, including China, Israel, have direct air connection with Russia.

The US ambassador to Georgia, Kelly Degnan, spoke to journalists on May 11 about Moscow's decision to resume flights with Georgia and noted that the United States could not comment on whether this decision will affect Georgia's candidate status. However, he said, "This raises the question of why Putin is doing this for Georgia." According to the ambassador, no one believes that the Russian president cares about the comfort of Georgian passengers.

More specifically, Degnan stressed, “Now, no one, I'm sure, believes that he cares about the convenience of Georgian travelers, and we have seen that Putin uses the presence of Russians in a country to sometimes interfere in that country. I think there are already many Georgians who are concerned about the hundred thousand Russians who came to Georgia last year. Now we hear from the Russian Tourism Agency that maybe a million more might be coming in as a result of these direct flights. So, I think that if Mr. Putin wanted to show that he cared about Georgia, he would withdraw Russian forces from Abkhazia and Tskinvali. He would comply with the obligations under the ceasefire agreement from 2008, and he would reverse Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and Tskinvali. Those would be signs that I think Georgians would appreciate as a true gesture, a sincere gesture. Remembering that this is the country that, in 2008, invaded Georgia, that in 1989, tried to crush Georgia's freedom, that tried to silence Georgia's language in 1979, and that for centuries desecrated Georgia's churches throughout this country. This is a country that is attacking Ukraine in the same way that it attacked Georgia 15 years ago, targeting apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, children, taking children from their families. It seems very odd to welcome a gesture from a regime, a bloody regime that is in the middle of doing to Ukraine, what Russia did to Georgia just 15 years ago and still occupies your land”.

When one of the journalists pointed out that in 2019, the US Embassy called on Georgia to restore air links with Russia, Ambassador Degnan highlighted the difference between 2019 and today, saying there is a significant difference: Russia invaded Ukraine. "I would say an important difference between today and 2019 is the fact that Russia has invaded Ukraine. Again, Russia has destabilized the entire region with this unjustified, brutal war that is purely aimed at taking Ukrainian territory and trying to eliminate Ukraine’s identity. That is a significant change from before," the ambassador said. He also emphasized that another important detail is that Georgia is not dependent on Russian tourism and Russian business as it was in 2019.

Ambassador Degnan added that Georgia should not become dependent on Russia again because it gives Russia dangerous leverage over its economy. She argued that the US would need more information about how the Georgian government would respond to this and the details of these potential flights, after which the US would determine whether export controls or sanctions would be necessary.