Abkhazia's new opposition movement

A new opposition movement has been created in Abkhazia under the moniker National Movement for the Protection of the Statehood of Abkhazia. The movement declared that its main goal is ‘to help the republic get out of the crisis’.

The answer to the question of how to do this, in general, sounds like this: the president must retire early, and all ‘healthy’ political forces, regardless of their political beliefs, should be consolidated.

This was reported to journalists by Mikhail Logua, the head of the headquarters of the movement. His political past is connected to the former president of Abkhazia, Alexander Ankvab, who resigned in the summer of 2014 after numerous protests.

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Logua was vice-president during the presidency of Ankvab, but voluntarily resigned in December 2013 before the street protests and Ankvab’s departure.

The council of the new movement consists of 13 people. Among them are seven members of the current parliament, as well as public and political figures. The council includes ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Chirikba and chairman of the political party United Abkhazia, Sergei Shamba, who was a member of current President Raul Khajimba’s team during the presidential elections in 2014.

Despite the fact that the new movement considers it necessary that the president resigns ahead of schedule, Logua stressed that the new opposition will by no means allow any unconstitutional actions:

“The president must resign voluntarily and in accordance with the framework of the constitution and the current legislation. If someone did mention some dates and other actions, then they were people who were far from our movement, likely officials of security agencies.”

Speaking about the reasons for his demand, Mikhail Logua said that ‘over the past four years, the government has simply not done what is necessary – it often did what our state does not need at all’.

“The split in society was aggravated, it became fragmented. Our task is to unite it,” said Logua.

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The National Movement for the Protection of the Statehood of Abkhazia emphasizes that any person can join it, and that the participants in the movement are ready for dialogue.

“We are convinced that presidential elections should be fair and transparent. A person who comes to power must formulate the basic principles of their personnel policy, which we, unfortunately, do not have. People should be recruited into the team for professional and human qualities,” said Mikhail Logua.

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