Breakaway Abkhazia to Issue Passports

President-elect of breakaway Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh said that, starting in spring, the de facto authorities will begin granting Abkhazian passport to the population living in the unrecognized republic.

Georgian State Minister for Conflict Resolution Issues Goga Khaindrava said on January 28, while commenting on the news, that ?these will be so-called ‘internal passports,’ which cannot be used abroad.?

Currently most of the Abkhazian population carries both Soviet-era and Russian passports. Tbilisi has repeatedly protested Russia?s policy of issuing its citizenship to the population living in the unrecognized republic.

Sergey Bagapsh said that even after the issuing of these new passports, the Russian passports will still be valid on the territory of the breakaway region.

In an interview to the Russian radio station Echo Moskvy on January 27 Sergey Bagapsh commented on the issue of passports and blamed the Georgian side of, as he said, forcing Abkhazians to carry Russian passports.

?When I was the Prime Minister [of Abkhazia in 1999-2000] I offered [former Georgian President Eduard] Shevardnadze: ‘let?s issue international passports in Abkhazia so that people could travel abroad’? I told Eduard Ambrosevich [Shevardnadze] if we don?t do this, we [Abkhazians] will become Russian citizens. He rejected this proposal. Hence, we failed to issue UN passports, you [the Georgians] did not support us in this initiative and as a result we made our choice [in favor of Russia] and I think it was the right choice,? Sergey Bagapsh said.