12 civic activists detained at ruling party central office

Twenty individuals have been detained at the central office of the ruling Georgian Dream party earlier today in Tbilisi where civic activists were protesting the arrival of Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner on March 31. 

• Russian journalist Pozner leaving Tbilisi due to protests

The activists said that the administrative detention came after the arrival of Vice-Parliament Speaker Gia Volski ‘who insulted us with his gestures.’ 

• PM Garibashvili: ‘radical opposition’ used ‘unacceptable form of protest’ against Russian journalist Pozner

The demonstrators shouted ‘slaves’ at the ruling party MPs and accused them of allowing the ‘Russian propagandists’ into the country. 

The activists held posters ‘the Russian Dream’ and ‘Abkhazia is Georgia.’ 

Pozner, who had stated that Abkhazia (Georgia’s Russian-occupied region) will never be Georgia’, left Tbilisi with his 40 guests earlier on April 1 instead of April 3 with a charter flight due to the protests of civic activists and the opposition.  

He arrived in Georgia to celebrate his 78th birthday.