The authorities of the Republic of Abkhazia again put spokes in the wheels of the law that determines the procedure for Russian legal entities to invest in the country.
The agreement between Abkhazia and Russia on investment activity was submitted to the Abkhazian parliament for consideration, but the "opposition" rioted near the parliament building demanding that its ratification be removed from the current agenda.
The document is aimed at developing infrastructure:
These riots may seem strange indeed as Abkhazia lives under heavy sanctions. It does not want to return under the jurisdiction of Georgia, which means that Russia is the only country that can bring big money to Abkhazia.
Yet, the Abkhazian "opposition" did not like the fact that the agreement "secretly legalized apartment sales." Abkhazian deputies agreed to exclude the purchase of apartments from the agreement, but the opposition was not happy still.
The authorities responded by detaining the rioters, but their supporters gathered at the state security building and started a pogrom, demanding the immediate release of the detainees. Late in the evening, the crowd blocked bridges on the roads leading to Russia (only public transport was allowed to pass).
President Aslan Bzhania convened an emergency meeting of the Security Council, after which he stated that "no one is raising the question of whether Abkhazia should join the Russian Federation." However, the level of unemployment in Abkhazia requires the government to "invest as much as 400 billion rubles in the economy" so that people could get work.
"Those who want to ruin relations between Abkhazia and Russia want to steal our future. They want us to live through Karabakh and Ukraine scenariso," Abkhazian President Bzhania said.
It is believed that Bzhania has the support of Russian special services, so this time the law will be passed.
Due to the shortage of energy in the republic, Abkhazia has been purchasing electricity from Russia since November 1 at 4 rubles per 1 kW/h. At the same time, the tariff for individuals amounts to 1.4 rubles, for legal entities — 2.4 rubles. The difference is compensated from the budget, which is subsidized by the Russian Federation. A certain amount of electricity is annually supplied to the republic free of charge:
All public sector employees of Abkhazia receive salaries from the budget of the Russian Federation as well. The conflict over the law on Russian investments and the closure of roads for Russian tourists does look very strange against such a background.
On September 5, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the RBC that Moscow decided to stop social payments to Sukhumi from September 1 due to the "balance of obligations" under the agreements previously reached by the leaders of the two countries.
"We are simply talking about the need to maintain the balance of these obligations, and our friends in Abkhazia understand this perfectly well," Lavrov explained.
From October 22 to 25, the Eurasian Cooperation Development Fund conducted a survey in the republic. The purpose of the survey titled "Russian-Abkhaz Alliance: Myths and Realities" was to establish an objective picture of the dynamics of political processes in Abkhazia and determine the current state of Russian-Abkhaz relations.
The survey showed that:
However, the Abkhaz political elite often consists of semi-criminal elements for whom any position is an opportunity to snatch something in Russia. For many years, there has been no concrete result from intentions to develop relations with the Russian Federation. Moscow has no idea of what may happen in Abkhazia tomorrow, as is evident from current events in the republic.