According to him, late in the afternoon, when the ship was already setting sail, about 50 protesters gathered on the shore. They sang something, and in response to them from the deck shouted “See you again!” and “We love you too!”
“It all happened during dinner, so people solemnly sang “Katyusha” at the same time,” the passenger said.
The demonstration was held peacefully in the presence of the police, he said.
Earlier, more than a hundred people gathered at the Batumi pier with banners, protesting against the arrival of a cruise ship with Russian tourists on board.
The Georgian opposition parties were outraged by the fact that the Russians were on board the cruiser, allegedly “violating the country’s legislation when visiting Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”
The Georgian Shipping Agency reported that the company that owns the ship is not on the international sanctions list, and the liner itself sails under the Palauan flag and does not belong to Russia.
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili called the arrival of the Astoria Grande liner from Sochi to Batumi a Russian provocation.
