Op-ed: is Russia reminding Abkhazia who's boss?
Trucks with tangerines and fruits from Abkhazia cannot cross the border with Russia along the Psou River for several days. During this time, a considerable part of the goods have spoiled.
The well-known Abkhaz politician and blogger Tengiz Jopua believes that this is a political message from Moscow, the goal of which is to remind Abkhazia of the need to quickly and fully implement the recently signed new cooperation agreement, which many in Abkhazia qualify as a partial loss of sovereignty:
“What is happening on the border between Russia and Abkhazia is a result of restrictions meant to restrain trade turnover, and also harm exporters.
It is impossible to explain what is happening by anything other than political pressure with the use of economic and non-economic levers of influence on Abkhazia.
Such examples of ‘trade cooperation’ between ‘strategic partners’ evoke nothing but surprise, disappointment and growing mistrust.
For Abkhazia, Russia is the main trading partner, for the market of which practically the entire agrarian sector of Abkhazia is designed. I doubt very much that when introducing new forms of customs control, Moscow did not understand the scale of the consequences for small Abkhazia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia should officially summon the Russian ambassador to explain what is happening.”
