How did Abkhazia's president get a $400,000 car?

It has recently been discovered that president of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania has an expensive car in his possession – a $400,000 armored SUV. President’s press service claims that none of the cars that are at the disposal of the president are official and were not bought at public expense.

A photo of an armored Lexus which users of social media estimated at 30 million rubles (approximately $412,000) was posted last week on one of the anonymous telegram channels

This information immediately caused resonance because many considered it sacrilege to waste such an impressive amount of state money- especially when local businessmen buy a CT scanner for the Covid Center and a large batch of vaccines for the residents of Abkhazia at their own expense.

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As a result, the presidential press service had to refute information about the wasted state money:

“Since the day Aslan Bzhania took office as President of the Republic of Abkhazia, not a single car has been purchased for the needs of the head of state. The President has several armored vehicles in use, including a 2016 Lexus LX.

None of the cars that are at the disposal of the President are service cars and none of them are purchased at public expense. It should also be noted that all of them were acquired between 2014 and 2020 [Aslan Bzhania was elected president in March 2020 – Approx. – JAMnews]”.

However, the announcement did little to calm the outraged public:

“It seems to me that it is better to delete the statement of the presidential administration about cars donated or bought before 2020, and the president’s press service should explain this by the consequences of COVID-19 from the official who prepared it … Otherwise, it turns out that the president of the country, being a candidate, submitted a declaration with innacuate information”, politician and blogger Tengiz Jopua commented on the situation.

In his opinion, this may turn into a big problem for the president since an inaccurate declaration of property calls into question the legality of a candidate’s participation in the presidential elections.

“A citizen did not have the right to be admitted to the presidential company. A much worse situation looms behind this. You can file a lawsuit in court to declare the results of the 2020 elections invalid, on the basis of a violation of the registration procedure for presidential candidates. And even without a court decision, this hits the legitimacy of the authorities with a backhand.

Therefore, it is easier to say that the official who prepared the document was declared insane, sent for compulsory treatment at his expense, all vehicles indicated in the statement have long been on the balance sheet of the presidential administration and are the property of the Republic of Abkhazia. We apologize for the cognitive dissonance caused by us among the population of the country”, Jopua writes with irony.

Cover photo: armored vehicle Lexus LX570. Source: driving.ca

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