In the course of the ongoing protest against the arrival of the Russian cruise ship in Batumi harbor, the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs have already detained 23 people on administrative charges. They are accused of disorderly conduct and non-compliance with a lawful demand of a law-enforcement officer. According to reports, one of the detainees is a Ukrainian woman.
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Part of the Russian tourists disembarked the cruise ship and boarded buses to tour the city with the help of the police and amid the chanting of protestors. Before that, the police officers boarded the ship. According to Irakli Dgebuadze, the head of the Batumi Division of the Adjara Police Department, this was a standard procedure.
“This is a standard procedure for any cruise ship that enters Batumi harbor – the police board, inspect, and take appropriate measures. Therefore, the police boarded the said cruise ship in full compliance with the law,” Dgebuadze told journalists.
The cruise ship Astoria Grande, which left the port of Sochi on July 29 with Russian passengers on board, entered the port of Batumi from the Turkish city of Trabzon at dawn today. In the Batumi port, protesters gathered late at night holding the flags of Georgia, Ukraine, and the European Union, as well as the inscriptions ‘’Russia is the occupier.’’ The Ministry of Internal Affairs mobilized officers and criminal police, as well as special forces units, and blocked the approaches to the ship with metal barriers.
The Russian cruise ship will stay in Batumi until the end of the day.
In the last week, Astoria Grande entered the Georgian port for the second time. On July 27, the cruise passengers were escorted out of Batumi with a protest, which Irakli Kobakhidze, the chairman of Georgian Dream, called “bigotry.” This time, Russian pop singers and presenters of the music channel RU.TV are also on board.
The Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia states that Astoria Grande is operated by a Turkish cruise company and the ship owner is registered in the Seychelles and is not subject to international sanctions, therefore, it has the right to enter the port.
Batumi was included in Astoria Grande's cruise route for the first time this year. Before that, the program included visiting the cities of Turkey - Trabzon, Amasra, and Istanbul. According to the information published on the official website, a similar trip planned for August and the following months will no longer include a stopover in Batumi.
