Kremlin-backed Abkhaz leader Aslan Bzhania said on November 8 that Sokhumi “needs to get to the point” where Russian citizens are allowed to buy real estate in Abkhazia.
Speaking at a meeting in Tkvarcheli, Bzhania stressed that the right to buy real estate “is the economic aspect” and “should not be related to acquiring political rights or citizenship.”
“We need people here, we need specialists working, coming, and going. People for whom our manufacturer will work, and for whom he will grow products,” he said.
Foreigners have been banned from buying real estate in Abkhazia, an issue that has led to long-time controversies in the occupied region, primarily over the prevalent fears among many of the Abkhaz of being outnumbered by other ethnicities in the region.
Such fears complicate the prospects of introducing “dual citizenship” with Russia, due to concerns that Russian nationals getting Abkhaz “passports” would make them free to buy the property in the region. The lift of the ban could also pave the way for the return of ethnic Georgians, who had fled after the 1990s armed conflict and now hold the Russian passport, to the territory.
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