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Tbilisi: Russia reopened sea links with Georgia yesterday, a Georgian official said, in a new easing of transport restrictions 18 months after Moscow imposed a partial trade embargo over a spying row.
The reopening of a Black Sea ferry route comes two days after Russia allowed flights to resume between the two ex-Soviet neighbours.
Transport and postal links were severed and visa restrictions imposed in October 2006 when simmering tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi erupted over an alleged Russian spy ring operating in Georgia.
The first ferry was scheduled to depart later yesterday from the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi to the Georgian port of Batumi, Malkhaz Khevishvili, an official with the Georgian Unified Transport Authority, told Georgian television.
From next month, a second ferry will operate on the same route to cope with higher seasonal tourist traffic, he said.
Georgian officials have said they hoped the resumption of transport links would be followed by a relaxation of other restrictions, including a ban on sales of Georgian wine and mineral water in Russia and tight visa controls.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Georgia's Mikhail Saakashvili agreed to resume flights when they met in February as a signal of their efforts.
But many tensions remain. Moscow says Tbilisi's policies in the region are aggressive and it is not being a good neighbour to Russia. Georgia says the Kremlin is punishing it for its push to join the US-led military alliance Nato and the European Union.
Georgia says Moscow is propping up its breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and using them to stymie Tbilisi's Nato ambitions.
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