Russia will fulfill Abkhazia’s three wishes

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the elected President of Abkhazia, Badra Gunba. Their talks made it clear that Moscow was pleased with the results of the elections in the republic and its alliance with Sukhum was not in danger. However, the parties will have to resolve serious problems.

“Badra Zurabovich, I am glad to see you and I want to congratulate you, of course, on your election victory. More than 54 – 54.7% – scored 70% turnout. Good result, I congratulate you.… You are certainly aware of the special nature of relations between Russia and Abkhazia, and you are aware of the problems that stand and need to be solved, and the solutions that people are waiting for. We will work,” Putin said at the very beginning of the talks.

In turn, Gunba thanked his Russian counterpart for the assistance he provides to Abkhazia. “The Russian Federation has always been consistent in its support. This applies to military and political support, as well as social and economic support, and the people of Abkhazia certainly feel all this support. We have historical, fraternal and economic ties, which we intend to further develop,” Gunba stressed.

Then he turned to requests. In particular, Gunba informed Putin that at the end of last year Abkhazia was faced with an energy shortage, due to which the authorities could provide light only 11 hours a day. The problem was solved thanks to the humanitarian flow of electricity from Russia, but in early March, the Abkhazians almost exhausted its volume. “Taking this opportunity, I would like to ask you for support before the end of the energy shortage – this is approximately until mid–April – to support Abkhazia with an additional volume of humanitarian flow to solve serious, acute problems for our country,” Gunba said.

In addition, he said that the agreement on granting dual citizenship has already been ratified by the parliaments of Russia and Abkhazia. It remains to determine the mechanism by which residents of the Caucasian republic will be able to become Russians. At the same time, Gunba recalled that 70% of residents of Abkhazia already have a Russian passport, but there are still many who want to get it.

The president-elect also told Putin that new legislation comes into force in Russia on April 1, which restricts border crossings by motor vehicles. “Unfortunately, our citizens crossing the border by motor vehicle will not be able to enter the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia. If there is such an opportunity in relation to Abkhazia to extend the deadline for the entry into force of this legislation for two years, we would have brought to the attention of the citizens of our country the need to obtain a Russian certificate for the use of a motor vehicle and would have solved the problem faced by our citizens,” Gunba said.

Putin agreed to help with each point, and the guest was profuse in his thanks. Since there were no contradictions, the negotiations took just over eight minutes.

However, recently Gunba has held more than one meeting with members of the government and the presidential administration of Russia. So, in early February, he was in talks with Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, after which he announced that Moscow had allocated over 340 million rubles to Sukhum. to co-finance the salaries of state employees. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak promised the Abkhaz leader to re-examine the investment agreement between Russia and Abkhazia in order to maintain a balance of mutual interests.

Caucasian scholar Artur Ataev believes that Gunba needed the meeting with Putin for additional legitimization in the context of rather difficult elections. “In addition, the Russian authorities have demonstrated full recognition of Abkhazia’s viability. It was a message to the international community that Moscow was strengthening its strategic allies. The Kremlin has shown the population of Abkhazia that it will continue to support their country’s economy,” Ataev told NG.

At the same time, according to the expert, even before the elections, Gunba showed himself to be a man capable of solving any difficult issues with Russia. “After the overthrow of Aslan Bzhaniya, Moscow looked closely at how stable the Abkhaz statehood was, but the course of the elections and their results showed that it was quite viable. In the future, Russia is unlikely to provide reckless economic assistance to Abkhazia. They won’t just pump her up with finances. But in the field of security and politics, cooperation is sure to increase,” the expert believes.

In turn, Vadim Mukhanov, Head of the Caucasus Sector at the IMEMO RAS, does not expect drastic changes in bilateral relations. In his opinion, they will remain the same as they were before March 2025. “The name of the President of Abkhazia has no qualitative effect on anything. At the same time, Gunba’s visit to Moscow was of a traditional nature. The elected president of Abkhazia always goes to Russia first to confirm the importance of deep allied relations,” Mukhanov told NG. In his opinion, Gunba inherited from the previous president of Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhania, not only friendship with the Kremlin, but also problems. Among other things, he will have to renegotiate an investment agreement with Russia and try to explain to the opposition the correctness of his decisions. As you know, for Bzhania, this process ended in resignation, and Abkhazia received economic and political crises.