TBILISI, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Embassy's refusal to issue a visa for a Georgian lawmaker who wanted to attend a CIS forum sparked heated debates in Georgia's parliament Friday over whether the country should stay in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose alliance of 12 former Soviet republics, including Russia.
Member of Parliament Givi Targamadze, the head of the Defense and Security Committee, was denied a Russian visa and had to cancel his trip to a CIS inter-parliamentary assembly in St. Petersburg. Other members of the Georgian delegation, led by Speaker Nino Burjanadze, refused to attend the assembly in protest.
Parliamentary Speaker Nino Burjanadze said Friday that the CIS had become "an appendage of Russia."
Many of the legislators agreed that Russia was calling the shots in the commonwealth and that as long as it remained a CIS member, Georgia would continue suffering from Russian double-standard policies.
Foreign Relations Committee Chair Konstantin Gabashvili, however, said the secession would be premature and "might lead to the total frustration of the peacekeeping process" in the conflict zones inside Georgia.
