Sukhum/Agency Caucasus – Abkhazian Parliament will sell the Hotel of Abkhazia off the coast of Sukhum, Abkhazia’s capital, at 60mn rubles.
The majority of Abkhazian members of the parliament approved of a law to privatize the hotel that had been burnt in a fire in 1986.
The law proposal to privatize the old Hotel of Abkhazia was submitted to the parliament by Aleksandr Adleyba, special presidential representative in the parliament.
The hotel was built in 1936 when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was still alive. It is considered to be one of the most significant buildings ever available in Sukhum. Work of renovation to the burnt building was suspended in 1989. The administration was not able to fully restore the hotel due to embargoes in the wake of the 1992-1993 war.
A hot debate among members of the parliament followed the submission of the proposal to sell out the hotel. Members of the parliament who supported the proposal said words that stressed the need for privatization of the building before it was fully sold out. "Although the hotel has been on sale over the past ten years, nobody has actually come up with an offer to purchase it," said Konstantin Katsiya, Head of the State Committee on Management as well as Privatization of State Properties. "The first offer to buy the dilapidated hotel came from Timur Temibulatov, who manages the Konti company."
Members of the parliament are worried
Some members of the parliament like Aleksandr Chengeliya, Adgur Haraziya and Vitali Smir were critical of the 60mn-ruble price estimated for the sale-out of the hotel, and called for a far more serious assessment of the situation. Another member of the parliament, Valeri Kvarchiya, argued against the selling out of the hotel on the grounds that it would pose a threat to the national security.
Daur Arshba, Rita Lolua, Valeri Kvarchiya, Sergei Matosan, Adgur Haraziya, Vitali Smir and Valeri Bganba announced in a written notification that they would not join the session because they did not want to take the responsibility.
The Forum for Abkhazian Union, which had formerly raised the question of whether Georgian businessman Mikheil Mirilashvili was behind the Konti company. There was also a state of confusion about the presence of two companies each of which was named Konti. One of those companies was owned by Mirilashvili, a Jewish businessman of Georgian origin, who had settled his business in St. Petersburg; the other company was owned by Timerbulatov, a Russian businessman. Prime Minister Aleksandr Ankvab responded to the Forum’s question by saying that the Konti company that offered to buy the hotel was not linked at all to Mirlashvili, who is currently in jail. APSN/KU/ÖZ/FT
