Sokhumi to Start Issuing Abkhaz Passports

Abkhazian de facto President Vladislav Ardzinba decreed on October 7 to grant Abkhazian passports to the citizens of the breakaway region starting from November 1.
 
At the same time, the Abkhaz cabinet was instructed to ratify a provision on new passports, and the Interior Minister to develop the necessary procedures on granting, changing, accounting and keeping new passports.
 
Up to present the Abkhaz population used either Soviet-old passports, or most of them possessed Russian passports.