In Photos: One Year since Tbilisi Protests

One year after the June 20-21 events, when scores of Georgians angered by Russian Duma MP Sergei Gavrilov’s presence in the Georgian Parliament hit the streets of Tbilisi to protest Russian occupation, civic activists, ordinary citizens and politicians gathered in front of the Georgian parliament.

A number of civic activists and politicians addressed the public summing up the last year’s developments, and stressing the importance of March 8 agreement between the ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition over the electoral reform.

The two-hour anti-occupation protest rally kicked off at 7 p.m. The protesters maintained a 2-meter social distancing and wore face masks, according to coronavirus-related recommendations.

Ruling party on the defensive over Russian MP in the Parliament Speaker Seat

On June 20, 2019, a group of opposition and civic activists gathered in front of the parliament of Georgia, condemning the Russian delegation’s presence at the session of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy in the parliament’s plenary chamber.

The protesters raised the responsibility of the ruling party over the developments. Tensions mounted as part of protestors of a large anti-occupation rally tried to break the police cordon and rush into the parliament. They were pushed back by the riot police.

240 people, including 80 police officers and over 30 journalists, among them, our own Guram Muradov, have been injured, as the police dispersed protesters through massive use of tear gas and rubber bullets.

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