Georgian Prime Minister’s Special Representative for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze said on December 27 that Georgia stands ready to help Russia in the search operation for Tu-154 plane crash victims.

“Providing humanitarian assistance is a duty of every country,” Abashidze told RIA Novosti, Russia’s state-run news agency.

“We have an experience, when respective agencies took part in the search operation for missing persons [referring to a landslide in Kazbegi district bordering Russia] … So we have such an experience, and when there is a necessity, respective agencies get involved,” Abashidze added.

Abashidze also noted that the Russian side has not approached the Georgian authorities with such a request.

Russian military plane with 92 people on board crashed on December 25 of the coast of Sochi, close to Abkhazia, Georgia’s breakaway region.