Abkhaz Deputy Prime Minister Resigns

Shamil Adzynba

RFE/RL

Shamil Adzynba
Shamil Adzynba

Shamil Adzynba has resigned as the de facto first deputy prime minister of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

Abkhaz leader Raul Khajimba accepted Adzynba’s resignation on August 15.

Adzynba said he was not “content with the way things are at the moment” and “found it impossible to stay” in his post.

He added that his resignation is not related to new Prime Minister Beslan Bartsits taking office.

Adzynba also served briefly as acting prime minister after the resignation of Artur Mikvabiya on July 26.

Adzynba said part of his decision to leave office was due to the failure to enforce the Abkhaz region’s language law, which states that politicians must be able to speak the Abkhaz language.

He said many of the new officials in Bartsits’s government do not meet this requirement.

Adzynba said he will run next year in a seat for the unrecognized state’s self-declared assembly.

Russia recognized Abkhazia and another breakaway territory, South Ossetia, as independent states after a brief war against Georgia in 2008. Moscow has thousands of troops in the regions.

Based on reporting by Interfax and RIA Novosti