The political crisis in the self-proclaimed and unrecognized state of Abkhazia, the Caucasus, will not result in its foreign policy changes; however, it reflects the Abkhaz elites’ clans struggling for Russia’s financial support.
January, 9 a group of protestors took control of the presidential administration building. Before the administration building stormed, the parliament of Abkhazia adopted a resolution calling on President Raul Khajimba to resign but Khajimba refused.
These demands followed the presidential election on September 9, 2019. The victory went to the current president, Raul Khajimba, who won 47.39% of the vote. The opposition presidential candidate Alkhas Kvitsinia won 46.17%. Kvitsinia insisted that Khajimba should have won more votes than the sum of votes for Kvitsinia and the votes against everyone. The clashes followed the action organized by the opposition in front of the building of the Supreme Court of Abkhazia. The opposition demands rehearing of an appeal of the opposition presidential candidate Alkhas Kvitsinia’s (the opposition party Amtsakhara, ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’) against a lower court’s decision to recognize the results of the republic presidential election.
In their statements the opposition parties Amtsakhara and United Abkhazia called the president ‘illegitimate’ and the current government ‘failed’. Amid the protests the demand of recusal of one of the judges whose commission had expired was fulfilled.
However, reportedly, Akhra Avidzba, the meeting organizer, said that the formal action caused by fact that one of men arrested by the Sukhumi court for the murder of three people (including two criminal authorities) in November 2019 was allegedly the Abkhaz President’s guard officer.
One of the main faces of today’s mob is Akhra Avidzba, originally from Sochi, who took the side of Russian separatist forces in Ukraine and got his nickname ‘Abkhaz’ there. Some local opposition leaders have already joined him at the seized government building. Avidzba was rewarded by the self-proclaimed DPR where he was part of ‘Pyatnashka’ brigade.
The events in Abkhazia are organized by Russia, in particular, Vladislav Surkov group, who is trying to change the puppet leader of Abkhazia. The economic situation in Abkhazia continues to be critical. The state’s vital activity is exclusively financed by Russia and income manually redistributed between puppet territories (South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Crimea, Transnistria). Abkhazia gets investments mostly in the form of Russia’s state assistance, as well as the corrupted funds from the Turkish Abkhaz community who supports the Abkhaz government. The issues with government agencies and partners are solved by gangsters beyond the court walls.
Despite being loyal to Russia fully, President Khajimba repeatedly limited flows of the Russian investments in Abkhazia. Such actions are aimed at providing business benefits to the Abkhaz clans close to Khajimba. Attacks, raids, kidnapping and murders of Russian businessmen made several deputies of the State Duma and members of the Council of the Federation send requests to the Office of the Prosecutor General, the Investigative Committee, and the Foreign Ministry of Russia.
The main reason for the Russian-inspired protests and Khajimba’s resign lies in the struggle for the Russian financial support that Abkhazia receives as a part of the traditional assistance redistribution.
Since both the government and the opposition have pro-Russia orientation, the Kremlin is interested in the political player ensuring Russia’s untied financial assistance reduced, open of the market for Russians and more control over the government.
The action was more likely planned in Moscow to discourage Khajimba, however, the Kremlin sits well with any outcome and expects the final outcome will be decided in favor of the strongest one whom it will support.
On preliminary information Abkhaz leader Raul Khajimba had to flee his office. After months of a tough race, his leadership is very vulnerable. But Khajimba is unlikely to grant power to some unknown protestors. He stated about his readiness to declare a state of emergency in the republic and called the current events as a coup. Thus, by attempting to hold on to power Khajimba can provoke a wave of the Abkhaz clan local clashes.
