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Georgian Prime Minister's Special Representative for Relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze said on Friday that he had discussed the current situation in Georgia, where a wave of anti-Russian protests recently took place, with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, and that they both had expressed a desire to maintain positive relations between the two countries.

"We have discussed the existing situation. It has been noted that we along with the Russian side are inclined to preserve, to the possible extent, the positive developments that have been achieved in recent years in terms of trade, economic, transport and certain humanitarian ties," Abashidze told reporters, according to the report by Sputnik news agency, stressing that it was important to control emotions in the current situation.

Protests in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi erupted on June 20 over the Russian delegation's participation in a session of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy. Demonstrators tried to storm the parliament building, demanding the resignation of the parliament speaker and other officials.