A prorussian wins the presidential election in Abkhazie – Liberation

The candidate prorussian for the presidential election in Abkhazie, Badra Gounba, won the election, announced this Sunday, March 2, the authorities of this separatist territory of Georgia close to Moscow but crossed by tensions. The territory was shaken last fall by demonstrations against an economic agreement with Russia, signed at the end of October and allowing Russian companies to invest in Abkhazie. These demonstrations had pushed the territory leader, Aslan Bjania, to resign, leading to elections.

Reputed to be close to Moscow, Badra Gounba obtained 54.73 % of the votes in the second round during the election on Saturday, while the opposition leader, Adgour Ardzinba, former Minister of the Economy, collected 41.54 % of the votes, the president of the electoral commission Abkhaze Dmitri Marchane told journalists. None of the five candidates in the running had obtained the majority in the first round, held on February 15.

In early February, Badra Gounba went to Moscow to meet with a senior Russian presidential administration, Sergei Kirienko, just a few days after the latter's trip to Abkhazie. If these contacts officially focused on the recovery expected in May of air connections between Russia and Abkhazia, suspended 30 years ago, the two officials took the opportunity to insist on the importance of close links between Moscow and Soukhoumi, the capital of the territory.

The detractors of the controversial agreement with Russia fear that it would open the way to the acquisition, by Russians, of apartments in Abkhazia, especially in the many seaside cities on the Côte de la Mer Noire in this territory of around 240,000 inhabitants.

At the end of a brief war which had seen its army entering Georgian territory in 2008, Moscow had recognized the independence of two border separatist regions of its territory, Abkhazia and Southern Ossetie. Russia has maintained it from a military presence.