The President of Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhania, did not hold a meeting of the republic’s Security Council, but he did hold a meeting with security forces, where security issues were discussed in the context of the protests, the Secretary of the Security Council said from Abkhazia, Raúl Lolua.
On Friday, protesters in Sukhum opposing the ratification of an investment deal with Russia took control of the presidential administration building and the parliament building. They also demanded Bzhania’s resignation. The Abkhazian opposition subsequently announced that it had created a coordination council to resolve the political crisis.
On Friday, the Abkhazian parliament was supposed to consider ratifying an investment agreement with Russia. The opposition opposes the ratification of this document. As a result, parliamentarians decided to postpone consideration of the issue until next week. The protesters announced almost immediately that they had no intention of dispersing until parliament voted against ratification.
The agreement, signed on October 30 in Moscow, allows Russian companies to implement investment projects in Abkhazia. As previously stated by the head of the International Relations Commission of the Abkhazian Parliament Alkhas BartsitsAbkhazia alone will not be able to find funds to restore the key and fundamental areas of its economy.
Earlier this week, opposition protests took place in Sukhum after Parliament approved the law “On the regulation of the legal status of multifunctional complexes.” This law was necessary to regulate the new concept of “multifunctional complexes”, which first appeared in the intergovernmental agreement “On investment activities with Russian legal entities in the Republic of Abkhazia.” On the afternoon of November 11, several opponents were detained by the State Security Service of Abkhazia for a fight near the parliament. In response, the opposition blocked three bridges leading to Sukhum. After the release of his supporters on the afternoon of November 12, the opponents unblocked the passage, RIA Novosti recalls.
