Russian Deputy Minister for Economic Development: “Harmonization of Legislation” Between Moscow and Occupied Abkhazia “Mostly Complete”

According to the Russian Ministry for Economic Development, on August 14, the Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dmitry Volvach said that Moscow and the de-facto authorities in Sokhumi have largely completed the process of “harmonization of legislation,” after almost fours years since the signing of the program “on the formation of common social and economic space.”

According to the press release issued by the Ministry following “the meeting of the joint Russian-Abkhazian working group on the implementation of the program for the formation of a common social and economic space,” the “final stage of the program on the convergence of the legislation” of Russia and the occupied Abkhazia is scheduled for 2025.

“Over the previous three-year period, as part of the program to harmonize Russian and Abkhaz legislation, various bilateral agreements and memoranda have been signed, and new regulatory legal acts of the republic have been adopted. These measures are aimed at aligning the legislation of the two countries in various areas such as electricity, customs regulation, investment and banking activities, as well as financial-budgetary and social issues,” the press release said.

“Currently, consultations between the authorities of our countries are nearing completion. Work on most of the planned activities has been finished,” Kristina Ozgan, the so-called “vice prime minister and minister of economy of Abkhazia” is quoted as saying.

The program, based on the 2014 Russo-Abkhaz “Treaty of Alliance and Strategic Partnership” was announced on November 23, 2020 following the meeting between Abkhaz leader Aslan Bzhania and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on November 12 the same year.

The document, setting 2-3 years of time-frame for undertaking changes, contains 45 independent paragraphs, obliging Abkhaz side to make legislative and administrative amendments according to the Russian law in social, economic, health and political spheres, such as regulation of dual citizenship between occupied Sokhumi and Moscow, enactment of legal act on regular medicine services, provision of energy security of the region, and development of a law on investment partnership.

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