Abkhaz Railway Consortium Set up

The Georgian, Abkhaz, Russian, and Armenian sides have signed a protocol on establishing a consortium – the Black Sea Railways – which will rehabilitate the Abkhaz section of the railway linking Russia with Georgia and Armenia, Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress reported on May 5.

The Georgian state-run Railway Company declined to make any comment regarding this report.

Irakli Ezugbaia, chief of the Georgian Railway Company was in Moscow on May 3-4 to negotiate with the Abkhaz, Russian and Armenian officials over issues related with the rehabilitation of the Abkhaz railway.

The consortium will be an open joint stock company, Andrey Turukin, representative of Abkhazia in Russia for Railway Issues, told Apsnipress.

He also said that the issue of the correct place of registration of the consortium has not yet been decided on by the participating parties and added that the issue will be discussed during the next meeting, which will be held in Tbilisi within two months.

“This is the first protocol which has been signed by all the participating parties and the Abkhaz side is represented as a full-pledged party,” Apsnipress quoted Turukin as saying.

“A very serious and important step has been made. We will be very careful and accurate and we will move gradually forward and protect our interests. The signing of appropriate agreements is ahead, which will regulate the process of handing over this railway to the consortium. All the decisions should be thoroughly measured. All the decisions by the Abkhaz side should be approved by the government, Parliament and the people,” Turukin said.