(Tbilisi, July 29, 2003, Civil Georgia) – The first tourist boat in the last ten years set off from Sukhumi, the capital of Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia, to a Russian city of Sochi on July 26.
The Russian media sources reported representatives of the de facto Abkhaz government and different departments of Abkhazia were the first passengers.
De facto Abkhaz Prime Minister Raul Khajimba said sea communication was resumed on the level of commercial structures, adding that the !
necessity for sea communication was caused by the great flow of tourists.
Deputy Chairman of the Georgian Parliament Vakhtang Kolbaia proposed on July 27 to take drastic measures in response to the unilateral resumption of sea communication between Sochi and Sukhumi.
He said Georgia must suspend the negotiations with Russia over implementation of the March 7 Sochi agreement between the Presidents of Russia and Georgia, considering the resumption of the railway link between Russia and Georgia via Abkhazia, restoration of power facilities in Abkhazia and safe return of IDPs to Abkhazia.
Earlier on July 21 Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin expressing Tbilisi’s “categorical rejection of double standards applied by Russian authorities and their lack of respect for the decision of the heads of CIS in 1996, forbidding any unilateral economic and political ties with Abkhazian separatists withou!
t notification Georgian leadership.”