Opinion: Why Abkhaz foreign minister’s visit to Moscow is more than a mere formality

Abkhaz foreign minister’s visit to Moscow

The new Abkhaz foreign minister, Oleg Bartsyts, has paid an official visit to Moscow. In his column, Abkhaz journalist and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Chegemskaya Pravda, Inal Khashig, explains why he believes this visit should not be seen as a routine formality.

Inal Khashig:

Following a sharp domestic political crisis in Abkhazia in autumn 2024, which led to the early resignation of President Aslan Bzhania, relations between Sukhumi and Moscow are now undergoing a reset.

The Kremlin has drawn certain conclusions and replaced its overseer of the Abkhaz file. The new curator, Sergey Kiriyenko, has effectively acknowledged the validity of the Abkhaz opposition’s stance against the Russian-Abkhaz investment agreement. The Kremlin is no longer pushing for the agreement’s adoption and has even stated that any further steps in this direction must take into account the interests of Abkhaz businesses and citizens.

Opinion: "Not an anti-Russian act, but response to Bzhania's policies" 

On December 3, the Abkhazian parliament decided not to ratify the Russian investment agreement.

Nevertheless, while Abkhazia was electing a new president and the Kremlin was in the process of transferring responsibilities from the former to the current curator, there were some “collateral casualties”: two Abkhaz politicians were stripped of their Russian citizenship, three journalists were added to the Russian Justice Ministry’s list of foreign agents, and several other Abkhaz citizens were banned from entering Russia.

In addition, many women holding dual Russian-Abkhaz citizenship faced criminal allegations from the Russian authorities — allegedly for unlawfully receiving Russian child benefits without residing permanently in Russia.

Russia’s FSB accuses Abkhaz women of child benefit fraud

It turned out, unexpectedly, that receiving Russian benefits while living in Abkhazia is illegal

For two countries considered allies, such sanctions appear nonsensical. They not only cast a shadow over the Russian-Abkhaz strategic partnership but also have a deeply negative impact on Abkhazia’s domestic political climate.

In this context, the new Abkhaz foreign minister has plenty of work to do and much to discuss with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

And judging by Oleg Bartsyts’ remarks following his meeting with Lavrov, the issue of sanctions was indeed raised:

“We discussed a wide range of intergovernmental relations that needed to be addressed today, issues that are extremely important for the citizens of our country, a broad spectrum of intergovernmental cooperation and interagency interaction. And most importantly, I want to once again emphasise the issues — a number of issues — that are very important to the citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia.”

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