Abkhazia’s Parliament votes down controversial investment agreement with Russia

The parliament in the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia has voted against ratifying a controversial investment agreement with Russia that led to mass protests and the resignation of the president last month, Abkhaz Telegram news channel Respublica reported on Tuesday.

If ratified, the investment deal, which was signed by Russia and Abkhazia in October, would have granted multiple financial incentives to Russian investors in the region, including an eight-year exemption from property and profit taxes as well as from customs duties on imported construction materials and equipment.

While the Abkhazian authorities had viewed the deal with Moscow as a potential boost to the region’s economy, its critics believed the deal represented the surrender of Abkhazia’s own interests to those of “foreign oligarchs”.

When members of the Abkhaz political opposition occupied parliament and the presidential administration in the capital Sukhumi on 15 November, the authorities cancelled the scheduled vote to ratify the agreement, and Aslan Bzhania, the president of the breakaway republic, resigned four days later in light of the crisis.

Despite Abkhazia being part of Georgia under international law, its economy remains almost entirely dependent on Moscow, which until September even paid the salaries of the region’s public sector employees.

Abkhazia broke away from Tbilisi’s control, with Russian support, as Georgia descended into civil war in the early 1990s. Abkhazia expelled some 250,000 Georgian civilians, though according to latest figures Georgians still make up an estimated 17% of Abkhazia’s population.