MOSCOW, March 29 (UPI) -- Russian police arrested 16 people accused of picketing illegally outside the Georgian Embassy in Moscow.
The protesters stood outside the embassy reading newspapers while wearing T-shirts depicting U.S. President George Bush manipulating Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili like a marionette puppet, Itar-Tass reported Thursday.
"This is not a picket or protest action -- we are just standing and reading newspapers that say Georgia filed a lawsuit against Russia in the European Human Rights Court," said Igor Boiko, who was arrested with 15 others.
"I believe that Georgia is deprived of its sovereignty and now management from the outside is evident there. The Georgian authorities' recent actions in relation to Russia are carried out not in the interests of the republic, but in the interests of third countries, including the U.S.," Boiko said in the Itar-Tass report.
The Georgian Justice Ministry filed a lawsuit Monday in the European Court of Human Rights alleging human rights violations when numerous Georgians were deported from Russia last year.
