On November 20, the de facto leader of occupied Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhania, imposed further restrictions on international NGOs (INGOs) and international organizations (IOs) that are implementing projects in this occupied region of Georgia.
The changes stipulate that INGOs and IOs have to:
- Provide Sokhumi occupation authorities with a list of local civil society partners participating in program activities and their registration documents.
- Include details for each implemented measure, its financial volume, and the local recipient (if any).
- Inform in advance about the list of planned activities, planned non-governmental partners, as well as projected changes to those.
- Report quarterly on the progress of the program.
The engagement of the local non-governmental partners would require prior approval from the “foreign ministry.” The decree went into force upon publication.
Stricter regulation of INGOs and IOs has long been pushed for by Inal Ardzinba, a former Kremlin employee put in charge of foreign relations of the occupied region. On November 16, Ardzinba announced his intention to close the doors “in the near future” to INGOs “who want to destroy Abkhaz-Russian relations and consider the Republic of Abkhazia an occupied territory.”
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