Abkhazia’s Interior Ministry probes reports of alleged abduction of Russian contractor

Alleged abduction of Russian contractor in Abkhazia

A Russian contractor involved in the reconstruction of the Sukhum seafront in Abkhazia was allegedly taken to a forest by unknown individuals and forced to sign a contract for the supply of construction materials.

The claim was made by Russian military correspondent Semen Pegov, who provided no further details or evidence. However, Abkhazia’s Interior Ministry of Abkhazia has said it has launched checks to verify the information.

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“One of the contractors working on the seafront reconstruction was taken into a forest by particularly overzealous Abkhazians and given an ultimatum: either you sign a contract with us to supply construction materials, or you will have problems.

The man, he says, did not back down. The matter was eventually hushed up and apologies were made, but, as the saying goes, the bad feeling remained,” Pegov wrote in an article following a recent trip to Abkhazia.

Semen Pegov did not specify the date of the alleged abduction, nor did he name the victim or those involved.

He went on to claim that corruption had “become an integral part of Abkhaz bureaucracy when handling Russian investment”, noting that the reconstruction of the Sukhum seafront is being funded by Russia.

As an example, Pegov said that when the governor of Russia’s Moscow region, Andrey Vorobyov, proposed building a high-quality Russian school in Abkhazia for several billion roubles, officials in the relevant Abkhaz agency allegedly responded along the lines of: “Give us the billions, and we will decide ourselves how to spend them.”

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Pegov’s article sparked a strong reaction in Abkhazia, with the opposition among the first to respond.

“It is extremely alarming that society is learning about this not from official sources, but from an external publication. If the facts described are true, this is not about isolated incidents, but about a systemic degradation of governance.

Taking a contractor ‘into the forest’ to apply pressure and impose conditions amounts to outright criminal interference in the implementation of interstate projects.

Attempts to cover up such facts only deepen suspicions of collusion between criminal groups and corrupt elements within the authorities,” the opposition organisations said in a joint statement.

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Abkhazia’s Interior Ministry of Abkhazia said it was checking the information, but added that no complaints or formal statements had been filed with law enforcement bodies in connection with the alleged incident.

The ministry’s press service said officers had tried several times to contact Semen Pegov to clarify the circumstances, but had been unable to reach him.

Pegov later responded via the opposition Abkhaz Telegram channel Republica, advising the ministry to contact not him, but the allegedly abducted contractor directly.

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