Calls Mount to Shut Airspace to Russia, Ban Pro-Kremlin Media

Several opposition parties and activists are calling for Georgia to shut its airspace for Russia and bar its state media and local pro-Kremlin networks from broadcasting in Georgia, amid the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Nika Melia, chair of the largest opposition United National Movement party, early on February 28 stated that the Government should join the airspace closure imposed by the EU “in the name of the Georgian people.”

Arguing in favor of the media ban, Melia said that “Russia’s propagandist media outlets” violate the “freedom and dignity of our country.”

Melia further accused the Georgian Government of being inactive in its response to the Russian invasion and in supporting Ukraine.

Lelo party chair Mamuka Khazaradze took a different road, calling on key private telecommunication companies — Magti and Silknet — to either set a high price for viewers to watch the “Russian propagandist channels,” or to drop the networks from their services altogether.

Khazaradze yesterday argued the companies needed to step in amid the Government’s “capitulatory” approach towards Moscow.

But the Lelo party has been reluctant to call for shutting the airspace so far. MP Salome Samadasvhili stressed today that the lawmakers have to deliberate the option first, as Georgia needs to weigh up the impact the move would have on neighboring Armenia.

She meanwhile raised the possibility of other targeted sanctions against Russian oligarchs and Kremlin propagandists, as well as applying rules outlined in Georgia’s Law on Occupied Territories to Ukraine as well.

Today, MP Paata Manjgaladze of Strategy Aghmashenebeli, said his party along with the Republican party will formally address the Georgian National Communications Commission to suspend “Russian propagandist media,” because their coverage contains “features of information warfare.”

Shame Movement, an activist group co-organizing massive rallies in support of Ukraine, issued yesterday three demands: to close the skies for Russian planes, stop broadcasting “Russian propagandist media” and start talking sanctions.

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, citing “national interests,” has repeatedly rejected to join international sanctions against Russia over the aggression against Ukraine.

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