MPs Say Russia Annexes Abkhazia

(Tbilisi, January 18, 2003. Civil Georgia) – At the Parliamentary special session today, which discusses the situation in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia, MPs demanded from the government to announce officially that Russian move in Abkhazia is an open aggression and attempt of annexation.

“Reopening of the railway with Abkhazia and granting Russian citizenship to the population living in Abkhazia is an annexation carried out by the Russian government,” former Parliamentary Chairman Zurab Zhvania stated at the session today.

The opposition MPs criticized the Foreign Minister and the government for ineffective measures taken to resists reopening of the railway connection between Russia and Abkhazia and issue of Russian passports in this breakaway region.