The Georgian president announced the cancellation of the wedding of Lavrov’s relatives in the republic due to the protests

Relatives of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov canceled a wedding celebration in Georgia due to social protests, said the President of the Republic Salome Zurabishvili.

“In connection with today’s incident, I received a message from the Minister of the Interior that the family, people who were supposed to play the wedding, have left and the wedding will not take place today. This is a kind of victory for society,” she said.

It was planned to hold a celebration at a hotel on Lake Kvareli, where Lavrov’s daughter Ekaterina and his son-in-law, businessman Alexander Vinokourov, arrived. According to media reports, the wedding was to be celebrated by the businessman’s brother (brother-in-law of the minister). The marriage was concluded in Tbilisi.

Georgian activists staged a protest by throwing eggs at the minibuses that brought the wedding guests. Police and special forces arrived at the scene. At least 16 demonstrators were detained, including Elene Khoshtaria, leader of the opposition movement Droa (The Time Has Come).

Lavrov’s family members are subject to US, UK and EU sanctions. Ekaterina Vinokurova is the only daughter of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry. She was born in 1982 in New York and is a US citizen. She studied at the Manhattan School and then at Columbia University, where she studied political science. She also received a master’s degree in economics from London.

On Friday, the first flight from Moscow to Tbilisi took place in four years. This also sparked protests in the republic. To the airport Shota Rustaveli came out with hundreds of people with posters “Russia is a terrorist state” and “Russian airship to ***”. There have been arrests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on flights of Russian airlines to Georgia from May 15, simultaneously with the lifting of the visa regime for Georgian citizens. President of the Republic named this decision is a “provocation” that will cause “political tensions” and he suggested introduce visas for Russians.