Lithuania protests Russia’s creeping occupation

The people of Lithuania have ventured out into the capital city in a public show of support for Georgia’s territorial integrity following Russia’s creeping occupation into Georgian territory.

Waving the flags of Georgia, Lithuania and NATO, dozens of people gathered in capital Vilnius today to take part in the peaceful demonstration.

The rally was mainly composed of Lithuanian and Georgian students living in Vilnius and in protest of Russia’s occupation and the recent developments at the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) in Georgia’s breakaway Tskhinvali region. 

#Georgia,we are with you! Say STOP for crawling occupation! Join meeting on Friday 12pm at Euromaidan Square, Vilnius pic.twitter.com/OFCDrAnS3o

— Gintarė NarkevičiÅ«tė (@narkeviciute) July 15, 2015

Gintara Narkeviciute, a member of Lithuanian think-tank Ronald Reagan House condemned Russia’s "crawling occupation” on her Twitter account and urged Lithuanian residents to take part in the rally in Euromaidan Square.

The rally was also attended by former president of Lithuania Vytautas Landsbergis, who took part in the protest and addressed the group.

Former president of Lithuania Vytautas Landsbergis holds a sign which reads "Stop Russia." Photo by Ketevan Kardava.

To make their point, demonstrators symbolically stretched yellow ribbons across the area they were in portraying the border separation. Written on the ribbons was the word "STOP”.  At the end of the protest participants launched paper airplanes into the air.