Georgian police this afternoon dispersed protesters who gathered at Tbilisi airport to welcome an Azimuth Airlines flight from Moscow, the first to arrive from Russia since July 2019, with placards and slogans criticizing the Kremlin and what they called the government’s pro-Russian stance , reports Sky News.

The pro-Western president of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, who previously clashed with the government over restoring ties with Moscow, also expressed her opposition today.

“Despite the opposition of the Georgian people, an unwanted Russian plane landed in Tbilisi. We say “No” to flights to Russia!” Zurabishvili wrote on Twitter.

For months, the Georgian opposition has denounced what it sees as a pro-Russian turn by the government, which has also worried the European Union, which Tbilisi is seeking to join.

Last Wednesday, Vladimir Putin unexpectedly canceled visas for Georgian citizens and lifted a flight ban that Moscow had unilaterally imposed in 2019 following a wave of anti-Kremlin protests in Georgia.

Following Putin’s decrees, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the cancellation of recommendations for Russian citizens to avoid traveling to Georgia in 2019.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have been difficult since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

There was a brief war between the two countries in 2008, which ended with Georgia losing control of two separatist regions favorable to Russia.

After that war, Tbilisi severed diplomatic relations with Moscow, and the status of the regions remains a point of tension, even if relations have somewhat improved.