Local residents who "seized" an Abkhazian state dacha left after confirming authorities won't sell it

Local residents who seized “Stalin’s state dacha” in New Athos, Abkhazia, on the evening of November 21, agreed to leave after the government promised not to sell or rent it.

During the Soviet era, several luxury dachas were built in Abkhazia for party leaders. One of them, located in the resort town of New Athos, is famous for being a vacation spot for Joseph Stalin.

On the evening of November 21, several hundred residents of New Athos, having dismantled three sections of the massive fence, entered the territory of the state dacha and effectively seized it. This was a form of protest triggered by unofficial information that the authorities were allegedly planning to sell the dacha to a Russian oligarch.

Another version suggests that the trigger for the protest could have been an announcement published on a Russian website about the sale of a 13-hectare plot of land “on the approach to New Athos.” The ad featured a photo of the plot, and the area shown in the photo is part of the complex of the state dacha.

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Within an hour, almost the entire adult population of the town gathered at the entrance to the state dacha to support the protesters. Residents of New Athos declared that “they will not allow the sale of what belongs to the people.”

Soon, Beslan Kvitsinia, the head of the department of state dachas of the presidential administration of Abkhazia, issued a special statement denying information about the possible sale of the facility, calling it false.

At the same time, Abkhazia’s vice-president, Badra Gumba, and the heads of all security agencies of the republic arrived at the state dacha for negotiations with the “invaders.”

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