As of: March 6, 2024, 2:57 a.m
By: Michael Kister
Comments
Press
Split
The foreign minister of the Georgian separatist state of Abkhazia wants a union with Russia.
In doing so, he contradicts older statements from his government.
Sukhumi - The foreign minister of the internationally unrecognized separatist state of Abkhazia, Inal Ardzinba, announced that the state that seceded from Georgia sees its future in a union with Russia and Belarus.
According to the Russian state news agency
TASS,
he did this during a panel discussion at the World Youth Festival in the former Olympic city of Sochi, which is right on the border with Abkhazia.
According to Ardzinba, one of the core tasks at the moment is to strengthen the relationship with Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus, with which we do not yet have diplomatic relations.
Economically, they want to cooperate at various levels.
These statements come as a surprise because the Abkhazian Foreign Minister contradicts what his ministry confirmed in August 2023.
At the time, Russian National Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev wrote in an opinion piece: “In Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the idea of uniting with Russia is still popular.
And it could certainly be implemented if there are good reasons for it.” Abkhazia’s foreign ministry vehemently rejected this, announcing that “the thousand-year statehood of Abkhazia” was not up for discussion.
Abkhazian Foreign Minister Inal Ardzinba (left) with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting in Moscow in September 2022. (Archive image) © IMAGO / SNA
Foreign Minister of the separatist state of Abkhazia: Union with Russia in the future
Ardzinba not only contradicted this earlier statement, but also, like Dimitri Medvedev in August 2023, the facts.
In 2016, the Prague-based agency
Medium Orient
conducted the last survey asking residents of Abkhazia whether they wanted to become part of Russia - only 27 percent said yes.
Ardzinba's statements may have something to do with the current situation: Georgia has been conducting the Trojan Footprint 2024 military exercise on its territory since March 4 together with special forces from the USA, Great Britain, Romania, Poland and Spain.
The separatists in Abkhazia may have become restless because of this and, in turn, have invoked a close relationship with their own protective power, Russia.
Shortly before, separatists in Transnistria asked for Russia's protection
Furthermore, the Abkhazian leadership's supposed change of heart comes shortly after the separatists in Transnistria asked Russia for protection from Moldova.
The reason they gave was that the mother state from which they were trying to become independent had imposed an economic blockade.
However, Vladimir Putin does not seem to have been particularly impressed since, as many observers feared, he did not order the deployment of additional troops to Transnistria in his annual State of the Union address.
In fact, he made no mention of the separatist state.
My news
Putin propagandist wants to destroy four German counterparts for Crimean bridge
Ukraine sinks Ka-29 submarine hunting helicopter in attack on Russian Crimean warship
Several Russian planes shot down: Ukraine finds out about fighter jet secret
“Totally loving”: When Söder explains the flat Ricarda Lang joke, Miosga sputters
China's "little falcon" changes everything: bird-like drone heralds a new era
25 minutes ago
“Super Tuesday” in the USA: Trump takes one state after another read
Perhaps this omission encouraged Putin's Foreign Minister Ardzinba, who also chose the cautious formulation of a union in the indefinite future, to use words as a deterrent.
However, the indirect threat to Georgia is not completely toothless, because just like in Transnistria, there are Russian troops in Abkhazia.
But it is questionable how powerful they really are.
Russia lures with independence and brings war
Together with the equally unrecognized separatist state of South Ossetia, Abkhazia declared itself independent in 2008 after a war against Georgia, in which both were actively supported by Russia.
Even South Ossetia, whose aspirations to unify with Russia have always been much stronger, canceled a referendum in May 2022 in light of the war in Ukraine.
When Ardzinba made his grandiose announcement, Denis Pushilin, the interim president of the Donetsk People's Republic, which is not internationally recognized, was sitting next to him on the stage.
This constellation illustrates Russia's current calculation in world politics: it lures small and small separatist states such as Abkhazia, Donetsk and Transnistria with the false promise of recognition and independence.
Therefore, it remains to be hoped that Vladimir Putin will not make Abkhazia and Moldova, like Donetsk, dependent on Russia and war instead.