Russian FM Meets Abkhaz Leader

Sergey Lavrov, the Russia’s foreign minister, met with visiting Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, in Moscow on January 29 to discuss “establishment of full-scale inter-state relations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Bagapsh and Lavrov exchanged views on preparing bilateral agreements, including in “such a priority sphere like security,” the Russian MFA said in a press release.

The Russian media sources reported in recent days about Russia’s plans to base its warships in the breakaway region’s port of Ochamchire and warplanes in Gudauta airfield. The Abkhaz officials have confirmed talks were underway on the matter.

“The talk is about a naval base in Ochamchire, where a group of Russian Black Sea Fleet warships will be based, and a former airborne troops base in the town of Gudauta,” Kristian Bzhania, spokesman for the Abkhaz leader, told Reuters on January 29. “We are now talking about this deal being signed, most probably, within the next few months.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that Lavrov and Bagapsh also talked about upcoming discussions in UN Security Council on “new parameters of UN presence in the region.”

The UN observer mission mandate’s expires on February 15.

Officials in Tbilisi say that Russia may also veto extension of UN observers’ presence in Georgia after it had already blocked extension of OSCE mission’s mandate.

Like in case of OSCE mission, which among other things was dealing with the South Ossetian conflict, Russia is also pushing for having separate, independent UN mission in Abkhazia, which will not be linked with UNOMIG headquarters in Tbilisi.

In its report in November, the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group said that senior Abkhaz officials had privately told western diplomats that they would like the UN observers “to stay on in some capacity, so they are not left solely with Russian troops.”

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