Kremlin Envoy Continues Talks with Abkhaz Govt, Opposition
Russian President’s aide, Vladislav Surkov, is holding a second day of talks on Thursday separately with the Abkhaz authorities and opposition as political standoff continues in the breakaway region.
Coordinating Council, a group of four opposition political parties and seven public movements, which remains in control of presidential headquarters after taking it over late on May 27, insists on Abkhaz leader Alexander Ankvab’s resignation. Opposition supporters keep rallying outside the presidential administration.
Surkov, who is in charge of overseeing Moscow’s relations with breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia, is accompanied in Sokhumi by deputy secretary of Russia’s security council Rashid Nurgaliyev.
Surkov met Ankvab on Thursday afternoon, an official Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported without providing details.
Vitaly Gabnia, chairman of union of the Abkhaz war veterans, Aruaa, which is part of opposition Coordinating Council, said that the Kremlin envoy “is not interfering in the Abkhaz political affairs”; he’s is trying to mediate between the parties, Gabnia said.
In parallel to opposition’s rally, supporters of Ankvab also gathered in Sokhumi on May 28; the both rallies proceeded peacefully.
“We should return to legal framework. We should sit down – the opposition and the authorities, and find a compromise,” Leonid Lakerbaia, the prime minister of the breakaway region, told pro-Ankvab rally in Sokhumi on May 28 without elaborating into details.
A senior official of pro-Ankvab political party, Amtsakhara, told the same rally that holding of a vote of confidence in President Ankvab in a form of referendum might be a way out of the current crisis.