Key parliamentarians from the Russian Duma Council have condemned the arrest of 29 activists from Moscow-based, wanted ex-security chief Igor Giorgadze’s party and its affiliated organizations as “repression” against the ruling party's opponents.

Boris Grizlov, Speaker of the Duma Council, said an “authoritarian regime” has been established in Georgia.

“The arrest of Giorgadze’s allies is a result of the so called [2003] Rose Revolution in Georgia,” Interfax news agency quoted Grizlov as saying on September 7.

Communist Party leader MP Genady Zuganov described the arrests as “a barbaric measure” against political opponents.

“There is not even the smell of democracy in that country [Georgia]… It seems that this move of the Georgian authorities is supported by the American special services,” MP Zuganov was quoted by Interfax.

MP Andrey Kokoshin, who chairs committee for CIS affairs in the Duma Council, said that the Georgian authorities have resorted “to Stalinist methods” to deal with “a legally operated opposition.”

MP Sergey Baburin said that arrests of “opposition leaders will lead to bad results for the Georgian people and also pose a threat to neighboring countries.”

Igor Giorgadze has also condemned the arrests of his allies in Georgia as “repression.”

“The Georgian authorities are using all the administrative resources available to somehow save their falling ratings, and one of the methods used is repression,” Giorgadze told the Russian NTV television station on September 6.