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Thousands Try to Storm Georgian Parliament

Ken Schwartz

   Thousands of Georgians tried to storm Parliament Thursday, furious that
   a Russian-speaking lawmaker from Moscow addressed lawmakers from the
   speaker's chair.

   About 10,000 demonstrators broke through police barriers and made their
   way into the Parliament building's courtyard, demanding thatSpeaker
   Irakli Kobakhidze and several senior Cabinet members resign.

   Police used tear gas to help keep the crowd back.

   "It's a big shame ... that the Georgian government has made it possible
   to see Russian occupants, enemy of this country, in the chair of the
   chairman of Parliament," opposition lawmaker Elene Khoshtaria said.
   "This is not acceptable for the Georgian public."

   Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in 2008 over the breakaway
   Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

   Russian lawmaker Sergei Gavrilov was invited to speak as the head of
   the Russian delegation of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy,
   a group that seeks closer ties betweenChristian Orthodox lawmakers.

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