Georgian parliament to move to Kutaisi

The Georgian parliament voted to move the country's parliament from Tbilisi to the city of Kutaisi some 220 kilometers to the west and approved amendments to the law on public meetings restricting the rights of demonstrators in the first reading on Tuesday, RIA Novosti said.

Under the bill, which was approved in a 106-1 vote, the Georgian parliament should move to Kutaisi after parliamentary elections in November 2012.

"In line with these changes, Tbilisi is losing the function of [Georgia's] political center, that's why the question becomes relevant where the Georgian capital will be," Georgi Targamadze, the leader of the parliamentary minority, said during debates on the bill.

Akaky Bobokhidze, the project's initiator, replied by saying that there was nothing extraordinary in having two capitals like in "many countries."