"I didn't buy it, I just rented it": Russian investor sparks scandal in Abkhazia

Russian investor sparks scandal in Abkhazia

In Abkhazia, the presentation of a large investment project turned into an embarrassment. Influential Russian businessman Alexander Tkachev said that he had acquired land in Abkhazia for the construction of a hotel complex – despite the fact that foreigners are not allowed to buy land and real estate there. As a result, the government and the investor had to explain themselves.

The cost of the project of a new hotel complex in Abkhazia, which was presented by the investor, the former governor of the Krasnodar Oblast, Alexander Tkachev, is 20 billion rubles (approximately 270 million dollars).

Tkachev said that he bought 45 hectares of land for the hotel complex in Pitsunda. According to Abkhazian legislation, land is not an object of purchase and sale.

The presentation of the project of the Moscow Resort hotel complex took place in the presence of the President of Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania and the entire leadership of the republic.

Alexander Tkachev, speaking to the audience, stressed that for the implementation of the project, his company “purchased, bought” 45 hectares of land in Pitsunda.

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A video fragment with the details of the deal was covered by an independent Abaza television channel (the state media did not “notice” it at all), however, at night, at the request of the presidential administration, it was removed from the channel’s website. However, it was already too late, as the episode about the purchased land was already being spread on social media.

The very next day the government of Abkhazia had to make excuses. Chairman of the State Committee for State Property and Privatization Beslan Kubrava said that according to the existing legislation, land is not an object of sale and purchase, and therefore no one in Pitsunda sold land to Tkachev, it was transferred for him in a form of rent.

The founders of the Moscow Resort hotel complex also did not stand aside and made an appeal to the public.

“Words from the speech of A.N. Tkachev. are interpreted incorrectly and taken out of context”, the authors of the appeal declare. “The land plot for the Moscow Resort project was provided to the company on a lease basis”.

As investors explain, in 2021, Moscow Resort LLC compensated the Moscow government (which was allocated this site in 2006) for all previously incurred costs, taking into account inflation, thereby obtaining the right to further implement the project. “These are the costs that Tkachev A.N. was talking about when he spoke about the acquisition of a land plot on the territory of Abkhazia”, the appeal says.

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