Abkhazia's oldest oppositionist Yakub Lakoba dies at 73

The oldest opposition leader of Abkhazia, Yakub Lakoba, died at the age of 73. The permanent leader of the People’s Party of Abkhazia was considered an unsurpassed orator. For this quality, he was often compared with the recently deceased famous Russian politician, Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Since Lakoba took over as head of Abkhazia’s oldest party, the PPA, in the early 1990s, he has almost always been in opposition.

“Even a dead fish can go with the flow”, he once said.

Yakub Lakoba was a classmate of the second president of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh. This did not prevent him from being his harshest critic.

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In 2010, the NPA leader was accused of slandering the head of the Russian Accounts Chamber, Sergei Stepashin. Lakoba called Stepashin a political intriguer and blackmailer because he did not respond properly to the facts of the misappropriation of Russian financial aid to Abkhazia.

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Abkhazia then opened a criminal case against Lakoba. He was even arrested, and he spent several days in a pre-trial detention center.

However, under the influence of public opinion, the authorities released him. Later, the case against him was dropped.