President before resignation
Serious turmoil in Putin’s vassal state of Abkhazia
November 16, 2024 – 3:34 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The Georgian region of Abkhazia is considered a vassal state of Russia. After the storming of the regional parliament by demonstrators, the president is now offering to resign.
After the storming of the regional parliament in Abkhazia, the president of the breakaway Georgian region has offered to resign. “I am ready to call elections, resign and run in the elections,” President Aslan Bschania said on Saturday. His condition was a withdrawal of the demonstrators who occupied the parliament and presidential office of the Moscow-backed region on Friday. The demonstrators “should leave,” Bschania said.
The demonstrators broke into the regional parliament and the adjacent presidential administration building on Friday to protest against an economic agreement with Russia. There had already been protests in the previous days against ratification of the agreement, which is intended to enable Russian companies to invest in new construction projects in Abkhazia. The demonstrators occupied, among other things, streets in the regional capital Sukhumi.
The region of 240,000 people, located between the mountains of the Caucasus and the Black Sea coast, was recognized by Russia as an independent republic in 2008 after a short war between Moscow and Tbilisi. Moscow continues to maintain military bases there as well as in the Georgian region of South Ossetia, which is also pro-Russian.
The opposition fears that the agreement will allow wealthy Russians to buy property in Abkhazia, including in Black Sea resorts. There are fears that the population will lose their property and everything will become so expensive that they can no longer afford to live there. The purchase of real estate by foreigners was banned in Abkhazia in 1995.
The mood in Abkhazia has been tense for days. Russia advises against traveling there due to the unsettled situation.
