Russia waived its six-month-old embargo on air links with its ex-Soviet neighbor Georgia on Saturday to allow a planeload of people to visit relatives in Russia for Easter, the Reuters news agency reported.

Moscow severed air, sea and postal links with Georgia in October after a spying row triggered a sharp deterioration in relations between Moscow and Tbilisi’s pro-Western government.

Russia is allowing three charter flights between Tbilisi and Moscow over the Easter holiday period as a humanitarian gesture, Russian television reported.

The first of these touched down in Moscow on Saturday. The charter flights were organized by Georgia’s Orthodox church.

Russian and Georgian officials have been in talks for months about the permanent resumption of air links but there has been no sign they are close to a breakthrough.

Until Saturday the only passenger flights between the two countries since October have been aircraft deporting Georgians ruled by the Russian authorities to be illegal immigrants.

Georgia says the Kremlin is punishing it for its push to join NATO and the European Union. Russia says Tbilisi’s policies in the region are aggressive and it is failing to be a good neighbor to Russia.

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