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Russian Duma speaker blasts Georgian authorities for allowing attack on Russian delegation

Several thousand demonstrators, together with opposition representatives, gathered in Tbilisi downtown on Thursday and tried to storm the parliament building

Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin

© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has blasted the Georgian authorities for allowing the incident with the Russian delegation at the session of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) in Tbilisi.

"The actions of the Georgian leadership at the June 20 session of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy runs counter the norms of holding international events," Volodin said. He added all preparations for the session were coordinated with the Georgian side.

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"As an organizer, Georgia is responsible for hosting an important international forum and ensuring security of its participants. These conditions were just ignored - they failed to hold the event and to protect the Russian delegation from attacks and threats," he noted.

"The actions of radical forces are directed not only against the representatives of Russia, but also of all 25 countries of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy. The session and discussion of important questions was thus disrupted," Volodin said.

"The statements made by the Georgian authorities after an attack on the Russian delegation make one doubt their adequacy and ability to bear responsibility to international partners," he concluded.

Protests in Tbilisi

Several thousand demonstrators, together with opposition representatives, gathered in Tbilisi downtown on Thursday and tried to storm the parliament building. People demand resignation of Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia and Parliament Chairperson Irakli Kobakhidze.

Demonstrations followed the participation of Russian State Duma member Sergey Gavrilov and other Russian delegates in the 26th session of the General Assembly of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) in Tbilisi. On Thursday morning, Gavrilov opened the session as the IAO president. Opposition Georgian parliament members condemned Gavrilov for addressing the delegates while sitting down in a chair of the parliament chairperson. Opposition representatives then picketed the rostrum and the chair of the parliament speaker and did not allow the session to continue.

A decision was made later to finish the session, and for the Russian delegation to leave. Representatives of the ruling party "Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia" said that they did not know that Gavrilov would open the session and think that the protocol was broken.

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State Duma Georgia Vyacheslav Volodin

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