Georgian PM: It was very hard to see the MP of an occupying country at high tribune of Georgian parliament

Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze says that it was very difficult for him to see a Russian MP speak from the seat of the Georgian parliamentary chair.

He says that the fact “affects national interests and the Georgian parliament.”

I fully share the protest of the Georgian people regarding the incident and appeal to the organisers to explain the reasons [how this could happen] take appropriate action,” Bakhtadze wrote.

Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze says that the protest of the Georgian people is fair. Photo: Prime Minister's press office. 

People are now rallying in front of the parliament building of Georgia, protesting the presence of Russian MPs in Georgia and the actions of Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov in the Georgian parliament earlier today.

Police in large numbers are present at the scene.

Georgian opposition MPs interrupted the 26th Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) after a Russian MP and president of the assembly, Sergey Gavrilov addressed the audience from the Georgian parliamentary speaker’s chair earlier today.

The Georgian Dream ruling party MPs also condemned the incident, saying that the Greek secretary general of the assembly and not Gavrilov should have moderated the event.

Gavrilov says that “radical groups” in the Georgian parliament suspended the assembly and insulted him.