Georgians clash with police over Russian MP's visit, parliament address

Clashes have erupted between the police and protesters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi as they tried to storm the parliament building over a Russian lawmaker’s speech in the assembly.

Georgian police responded by firing rubber bullets and tear gas during the Thursday evening protest action, in which the angry crowds demanded snap parliamentary elections while throwing bottles at police lines, grabbing riot shields from officers and tearing off their helmets.

The tension came following a controversial address by Russian legislator Sergei Gavrilov.

Gavrilov, who chairs the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), addressed delegates in the lower house of Georgia’s parliament, enraging some politicians and activists opposed to close ties with Moscow.

The opposition alleged that the ruling Georgian Dream Party is not being sufficiently strong in confronting the Russians.

“Georgian Dream has brought the Russian occupiers in and let them sit in the speaker’s chair,” said opposition member of parliament Elene Khoshtaria. “That was a slap in the face to recent Georgian history.”

Some protesters broke through riot police cordons to gain access to the parliament courtyard before being pushed back by security forces. The protest effort then continued peacefully until midnight.

Dozens of demonstrators and police were reportedly transferred to hospitals with injuries from rubber bullets, tear gas poisoning as well as stones and other objects thrown by the protesters.

Opposition lawmakers further demanded that the parliamentary speaker, as well as the country’s interior minister and chief of the state security service all resign over the incident.

This is while Georgia’s Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze underlined that the Thursday unrest outside the parliament had been “provoked by opposition forces.”

He further emphasized in a statement that the police “never used and is not going to use rubber bullets or gas against peaceful protesters.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin released a statement expressing Moscow’s outrage at the actions of what he described as radical Georgian political forces, accusing them of propagating anti-Russian sentiment.

However, he added that Russia would keep trying to normalize its ties with Georgia.

According to press reports, Russian influence within Georgia remains a politically sensitive issue. The tiny nation and former Soviet republic fought and lost a brief war against Moscow in 2008.

The two countries have not had diplomatic ties since, and Russia went on to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where Russian troops are currently stationed.

The opposition forces in Georgia hope to one day join the European Union and the US-led NATO military alliance, raising concerns in Moscow, which fiercely opposes such a move.

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