(Adnkronos) – Abkhazia is in the dark following protests that led to the withdrawal of the package of laws to give the green light to Russian investments in the Black Sea region included within the borders of Georgia but de facto under the control of Russia. Moscow has suspended the payment of social checks, with the exception of pensions, and imposed a market price on Sukhumi for the electricity it supplies (Abkhazia only has one hydroelectric plant, otherwise it depends on Russia), according to the model well established over the decades with other countries disobeying its authority.
Since yesterday and for ten hours a day, the local authorities have imposed the controlled suspension of the supply of electricity, limited access to the Internet from midnight to seven this morning in order to “counteract cryptocurrency mining activities” and ordered the schools to be closed from tomorrow and next Tuesday, again to save energy. “It is extremely difficult for us to manage the situation without financial support from Moscow,” admitted acting President Badra Gunba.
Russia has withdrawn the equivalent of $18 million in funding, according to Sukhumi. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has so far explained that “negotiations” are continuing with Abkhazia on Moscow’s aid for social security for Abkhazians, on the continuation of our support and on the investment agreement and “on the reaction of the Abkhaz Parliament to this agreement”.
Abkhaz Prime Minister Valery Bganba asked, without success, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to resume paying social checks to the region. On 3 December, the Abkhaz Parliament voted against the ratification of the intergovernmental agreement on the implementation of investment projects by Russian entities in Abkhazia, signed in Moscow on 30 October and whose ratification in mid-November had been suspended following a protest by square. The cancellation of the agreement was not made directly against Moscow but because the agreement constitutes, according to the deputies, an “enslavement” of Abkhazia.
