On May 20, information was spread that the daughter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, was in Georgia, and was staying at the Kvareli Lake Hotel.
As reported, the family was preparing for a grand wedding in Kakheti for Lavrov’s son-in-law, Alexander Vinokurov’s brother.
The daughter of Lavrov and his son-in-law are under Western sanctions.
Activists gathered in the vicinity of the Kvareli Lake hotel and threw eggs at minibuses leaving the hotel. “There is no place for Russians in Georgia,” they shouted, and demanded that Russian citizens leave the hotel area immediately.
The administration of the hotel claimed rumors that Lavrov’s daughter was staying there were not true.
The situation between the police and protest participants became tense and led to the arrest of 16 persons, who were soon released. The court will discuss their cases on June 19 in an administrative manner.
Among those 16 persons was the leader of the ‘Droa’ party, Elene Khoshtaria, who was in the pre-trial detention center for almost 24 hours.
They are charged with petty hooliganism and disobedience to the police, which are standard charges for arrests at protests and usually result in 2,000 GEL fines.
President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili held a briefing and noted that she had received a promise from the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia that “the family, the people who were going to organize the wedding, have left Georgia and the wedding will not take place.”
Opposition Reaction
“The Russian terrorist regime failed to formalize a marriage in Georgia and with Georgia today,” Nika Melia, a member of the National Movement, wrote on social media.
“Lavrov’s sanctioned family has left Georgia! The Russian terrorist state could not formalize a marriage in Georgia and with Georgia today! However, until we do defeat the cause of the Russification of the country, we will have to fight their symptoms every day and everywhere!
We will fight and celebrate the implementation of Georgia’s historic European choice!” Melia said.
“Irakli Garibashvili and the Russian party like to talk about Georgian traditions, yet today they defend Putin, Lavrov, the people who are occupying Georgia, who killed Antsukhelidze, Otkhozoria, who killed many heroes, who killed our parents, tortured children – they are defending their family members,” stated the chairman of National Movement, Levan Khabeishvili. “These people are zonders in police uniform, because no decent policeman can protect Lavrov’s sanctioned daughter. I repeat again, in which traditional Georgian family is there a Georgian toast where they mention Putin and Lavrov?”
The Ruling Party’s reaction
“A sanction should not apply to a family member- this approach is contrary to human rights standards,” Georgian Dream Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze told reporters, responding to the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s family members to Georgia, and noting that Georgia is guided by the law on occupation and if said law was not violated, the customs service had no reason not to allow specific persons into Georgia.
“It should be said by what criteria the state has regarding the entry of specific people into the country. Georgia is not part of the sanctions, we have not imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation, and the reasons for this have been explained more than once. There is a law on occupation, the main criterion is whether or not there is a violation of the law on occupation. In this case, if the law on occupation was not violated, of course, the customs service had no reason to prevent specific persons from entering Georgia. The relevant agencies will take care of the rest, but you are also advised to be guided from beginning to end by the occupation law, which is the main guiding principle for each agency.
“Regarding the sanctioning of persons, I would like to clarify two things – first, we have not joined the sanctions, and this includes personal sanctions, that is, we do not impose sanctions on the Russian Federation. Second, even theoretically, if we consider personal sanctioning of someone for something, when we are talking about Georgia, a legal state, this applies only to those people who have directly committed a criminal act. A sanction should not apply to a family member. Such an approach is contrary to human rights standards. I am a human rights specialist, I studied this field in Germany, and I can tell you directly, boldly, that sanctioning a family member is grossly against human rights standards and this is a very mild assessment,” said Kobakhidze.
He also responded to the protest and noted that “the so-called protest has only one goal – escalation, creating unrest in the country, organizing provocations, and the final goal is a second front [in the Ukrainian war].”
Kobakhidze urged the population to carefully observe the events and make a correct assessment.
“I want to talk about the morality of the leader of yesterday’s protest, Elena Khoshtaria. If there is anything sanctioned by the West in Russia, it is first of all the state and the budget itself, and this person, Elena Khoshtaria, who seems to be agitated by someone coming to Georgia, receives millions of Russian Rubles from this sanctioned budget. This is their moral face. I would also like to remind you that three years after the occupation of 20% of our country, after Saakashvili handed over two of our historical regions to the Russian Federation with his adventurous actions, and because of this occupation, 500 Georgians died and 30 thousand people became IDPs due to Russian military aggression, Saakashvili personally visited Mikhalkov, who is distinguished by his active participation in the propaganda of the Russian government. This is their moral face. Today, I can directly tell you that the so-called protest that we saw yesterday has only one goal – escalation, creating unrest in the country, organizing provocations and the ultimate goal is the second front. I would like to call on the public to properly observe these events and give a correct assessment,” Kobakhidze said.
Compiled by Ketevan Skhirtladze
