Customs control on the border between Abkhazia and Russia
Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Russia Lifts Sanctions from Abkhazia
The Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note to the executive committee of the CIS yesterday informing it that it is lifting trade, financial and transportation sanctions against Abkhazia. Now Russia will conducts its economic relations on the basis of international law, although without officially recognizing it, as it promised to do after Kosovo declared its independence. The CIS member states imposed sanctions on Abkhazia in 1996.
The officially stated purpose of the move to convince Sukhumi to take a more flexible position in negotiations with Tbilisi on the return of refugees to the unrecognized republic. More than 200,000 refugees from Abkhazia are living in the central parts of Georgia now, although, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, most refugees from the Gali area of Abkhazia, which was the main demand when the sanctions were imposed on Abkhazia. The ministry accuses Georgia of impeding the return process by refusing to register the refugees.
Abkhazia was not included in the embargo Russian imposed on Georgian products a year ago, and Abkhazian tangerines, grapes and persimmons are regularly delivered to Russian markets. There is no officially declared embargo on South Ossetia, but an embargo exists in practice to keep products from western Georgia off the Russian market, which previously flowed through that region. Abkhazia does not allow Georgian products to be shipped through its territory. The Russian decision to lift the Abkhazian embargo is clearly in line with plans to involve the unrecognized state in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 07, 2008
|
|
|
