The gathering was staged by the county’s major opposition party dubbed ‘Alliance of Georgia’s patriots. Despite the heat, the rally attracted at least some 20,000 people, according to the event’s organizers.
“Our main demand to the [country’s] leadership – is to see at last what the people really want. We should start a direct dialogue with Tskhinval, Sukhum and Moscow,” the party’s leader, Irma Inanishvili said as sited by RIA Novosti.
The politician referred to the republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, that Georgia considers to be its breakaway regions. Russia, on its part, has recognized them as independent state following the president Mikhail Saakashvili-era assault on the republics back in 2008, that resulted in some 1,000 deaths, including of Russian peacekeepers and prompted Moscow’s military response.
The relations between Russia and Georgia were not easy since that conflict, yet they deteriorated over the past few weeks. There were violent protests in Tbilisi after the head of the Russian delegation to the session of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) took the seat of the Georgian parliamentary speaker during the joint session and some people found it “insulting.”
Following the outburst, Moscow suspended all Russian flights to and from the country, deeming it unsafe to travel due to the spike in Russophobia. That decision had quite a mixed effect, with some in Georgia calling to mend the relations with Moscow, while others pouring oil into the fire.
RT
