Moscow/Agency Caucasus – Recent speculations in the Russian news media say that the Russian administration will leave it up to its alliances to decide whether or not to grant official recognition to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Citing anonymously a official of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote that Moscow, the political capital of Russia, would not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia. However, the newspaper hinted at the possibility of Abkhazia and South Ossetia being granted recognition from such alliances of Russia as Belarus and Tajikistan. This possibility might come true, the newspaper wrote, when the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) had its summit either in Minsk or Bishkek.
Financial aid to continue
Whether or not Russia will recognize both countries, it will continue to supply financial aid to them. This was evidently put in the February 15 statement released from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said that Russia would provide financial as well as humanitarian aid to both republics, though it would not recognize them as independent.
Maksim Gvinciya, Deputy Foreign Minister of Abkhazia, said that what constituted the bulk of the financial aid that came from Russia to Abkhazia, 80 percent of whose entire population owns a Russian passport, was retirement pensions. The Russian administration paid $24.05mn (590mn rubles) in retirement pension to Abkhazian pensioners in 2007. Russia’s 2007 investments in Abkhazia exceeded $200mn, according a statement from the Abkhazian Presidential Office. A similar case is true of South Ossetia, where 96 percent of the entire population enjoys the benefits of Russian citizenship.
The national income of Abkhazia is about $50mn.
After Kosovo was recognized last Sunday by most western countries to be independent, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two de facto independent countries, sought full, official recognition of their independence from Russia, too. However, this remains to be far away from realization for the moment. FT
