Russia suspends flights to Georgia, more protests in Tbilisi
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President Vladimir Putin has temporarily banned Russian airlines from flying to Georgia following days of violent unrest in the country.
Moscow will also recommend that Russian travel agencies suspend all tours to neighbouring Georgia.
Protesters gathered outside Georgia’s parliament for a second successive night of protests on Friday evening, demanding snap elections and the resignation of the country’s interior minister.
They want the Georgian Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia to resign over his handling of the unrest.
The people are also angry at how the police dealt with Thursday’s protests.
Earlier the speaker of Georgia’s parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze, resigned after some 240 people were hurt in protests at the country’s parliament buildings in protests the night before.
The protesters had demanded Kobakhidze’s resignation as well as early elections. The protests turned violent after the appearance of a Russian MP.
Sergei Gavrilov addressed an assembly of MPs from Orthodox Christian nations.
Also on Friday, organisers of Georgia’s first LGBT pride march, which had been planned for Saturday and threatened by religious and right-wing groups, called off the march, citing security concerns.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili called Russia “an enemy and occupier”, saying Moscow had helped to stir the unrest.
Zurabishvili cut short a trip to Belarus to return to Tbilisi, where she visited some of the injured in hospital. She said she understood the anger of the protesters but it did not justify “anti-state actions, calls to storm parliament and overthrow the government”.
