Georgians hold protest against Russia
People have staged an anti-Russia rally in Georgia to voice their opposition to what they claimed to be Russia’s presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
More than 3,000 people took to the streets in the capital, Tbilisi, on Saturday and gathered in front of the State Chancellery building, chanting slogans and holding placards that read “Stop Russia!”
The protest came after Georgia’s Foreign Ministry claimed on July 14 that Russia has pushed border markers nearly one kilometer (half a mile) further into the Tbilisi-controlled area near the region of South Ossetia.
Protesters remove a border sign allegedly installed by Russian and Ossetian troops along Georgia’s border with South Ossetia in the village of Khurvaleti, July 14, 2015. (© AFP)
Opponents claim Moscow’s alleged recent move to change the position of border markers leaves a part of the Baku-Supsa pipeline, which transports Caspian oil, under Russia’s control. The 830-kilometer Baku-Supsa pipeline runs from Azerbaijan to Georgia’s Black Sea terminal of Supsa and has a capacity of transferring as many as 100,000 barrels of oil a day.
Russia, meanwhile, has denounced the claims as “propaganda.”
South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, the pro-Western government in Tbilisi has never recognized the independence of South Ossetia.
Moscow recognized South Ossetia as an independent nation after a war broke out between Russia and Georgia in 2008. Russia has ever since continued erecting barbed wire around South Ossetia.
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