TBILISI, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's parliament is not considering repatriating the remains of the 19th-century Russian playwright and diplomat Alexander Griboyedov, the speaker said Thursday.
"There are no grounds to rebury Griboyedov, the Georgian parliament has not discussed or considered the issue, not even as an idea," Nino Burjanadze said at a news briefing.
She made the statement after officials in Moscow reacted strongly to a Georgian lawmaker's proposal that Griboyedov, who was buried in Tbilisi in 1829, should be reburied in his native Russia, calling the move a provocation.
The author of the famous play "Woe from Wit" was buried in the Georgian capital's Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures after being murdered by a mob in Tehran, where he had served as minister plenipotentiary.
But MP Giorgi Bokeria, deputy head of parliament's legal committee, argued Griboyedov did not belong in the pantheon of Georgia's greats as he was not an ethnic Georgian and had made no contribution to the nation's development.
Burjanadze said she was surprised at how fast some mass media had proved in spreading this "clearly provocative suggestion," and tried to play down its perceived nationalistic dimension.
"Representatives of any ethnic group enjoy equal respect in Georgia," she said. "A person's human rights will never be infringed upon in Georgia based on his or her ethnic origin."
Bokeria voiced the idea of reburying Griboyedov after Georgia's legislature moved Wednesday to draft a law that would lay down criteria for selecting people of prominence who deserve to be buried in the national pantheon.
"Griboyedov was a poet of genius and an outstanding figure for the diplomatic service of his country - the Russian Empire. But he was not Georgian. I do not think he belongs in the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures of Georgia in Tbilisi," Bokeria said.
Earlier on Thursday, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament called the move a nationalistic provocation.
"It can't be that the decision has been made by the Georgian people. They [such statements] may only be made by the upper echelons," said Boris Gryzlov, adding that "references to [other people's] ethnicity stem from nationalism."
Sergei Mironov, speaker of parliament's upper house, said: "Fighting against one's past, one's history, one's memory is a useless and dangerous thing to do, with no prospect of winning."
Mikhail Shvydkoi, head of Russia's Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, classified the proposal as "political schizophrenia."
"This is something of political schizophrenia," he said.
He also said he had been "stunned by the news as any country should feel honored to keep the ashes of a genius of Russian culture."
