Abkhazia at a Crossroads: On the Domestic Political Situation in the Republic of Abkhazia

Abstract

The de facto lifting of the blockade of Abkhazia following the change of the Kremlin administration, has exposed the republic to the world and has attracted a great deal of interest from both Russia and the West in what is actually going on in this unrecognised state. The phenomenon of unrecognised states itself merits an examination, as any of them can provide a paradigm of how an independent state may be built outside of the international community, and how a political system may be established in a chaotic post-conflict environment. The building of an unrecognised state is not completed until the moment it has been recognised internationally. That moment may come at any time or it may not come at all. In this regard, it is vital for an unrecognised state to have a stable political system, be capable of addressing ever-changing challenges, be flexible and resist breakup. No country in the world is immune to occasional political crises, and unrecognised states are no exception. The concern here is for the nation in crisis to respond adequately to the issues it is faced with and thus facilitates the strengthening of the existing political institutions rather than expediting their collapse. The aim of the present study is to examine the domestic political situation in the Republic of Abkhazia, which for the past 18 months* has been beset by a lengthy crisis driven mainly by the lingering illness of the republic's first leader, Vladislav Ardzinba. A hard-line and generally autocratic leader, Ardzinba alienated many of his former comrades and failed to maintain control over his closest aides and, more important, his relatives. Widespread corruption and ongoing scandals involving members of his family, have gradually eroded the President's authority and, in a broader sense, the authority of his power.