MPs of Georgian Alliance of Patriots leave for Moscow after Tbilisi protests
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, July 16
Member of a pro-Russian Alliance of Patriots parliamentary opposition Giorgi Lomia has arrived to Moscow, Russian Ria Novosti says while another MP from the same party Ada Marshania and a member of Tbilisi City Assembly GochaTevdoradze will join him shortly.
They are scheduled to meet with Russian MPs, one of the leaders of the party David Tarkhan-Mouravi told the party supporters last week.
It remains unknown how Marshania and Tevdoradzewill arrive in Russia, as the country banned direct flights to Georgia from July 8, responding to the forcing out of Russian MPs from Tbilisi on June 20.
The visit comes after Tbilisi rallies when hundreds of Georgian took to the streets protesting Russian occupation.
The rallies were sparked after Russian MP Sergey Gavrilov was allowed to address the audience from the seat of Georgian parliamentary speaker on June 20, during Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy – an international forum with more than 20 states.
Russian MPs had to leave the country the same day, while Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the ban on direct flights to Georgian on the next day. However, Putin refused to ban Georgian products, a sanction offered by Duma.
“It was a right and a worthy decision,” head of the Patriots of Alliance Irma Inashvilipraised Putin.
The Alliance of Patriots members are scheduled to meet with Gavrilov.
“I am ready for the meeting,” Gavrilov said a couple of days ago.
The Alliance of Patriots supported the conduction of the religious forum in Tbilisi.
When the forum caused the unrest, the Alliance of Patriots shifted the blame onto the United National Movement opposition, as the MPs of the UNM suspended the session of the assembly after Gavrilov’s address, calling upon the people to take to the streets “to defend dignity.”
The United National Movement says that the Georgian Dream ruling party and the Alliance of Patriots are “identical in ideology,” “supporting one another,” and that the Georgian Dream helped the party enter parliament in 2016 only with six MPs.
