News agency Regnum quotes acting Abkhaz Prime Minister Nodar Khashba as saying that he was sent to Abkhazia personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Meeting with the mothers who lost their loved ones in 1992-93 conflict in Georgia, Khashba said that he “was ordered to see President Putin” who told him “these [the Abkhaz] are your people. Situation is difficult. You have to go there and stabilize it until the new president [of Abkhazia] is inaugurated.”
Khashba, who served as the deputy minister for investment in Russia’s Ministry for Emergencies, was appointed as Prime Minister by the incumbent Abkhaz de facto President Vladislav Ardzinba, after the presidential elections in Georgia’s rebel region have entered a deadlock.