Protesters on Friday stormed the parliament of the Russian-backed government in the breakaway region of Abkhazia in Georgia and have demanded the resignation of the pro-Kremlin leader President Aslan Bzhania.
A truck was used to smash through metal gates surrounding the government building in the capital city of Sukhumi, and images of the riot show protesters then climbing through the windows and chanting in the halls, according to information sent to Fox News Digital by the East 2 West news outlet.
Russian officials said they were monitoring the “crisis situation” and urged citizens to avoid traveling to the region, Reuters reported Friday.
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Moscow has had a vested interest in the region given its immense economic support since it first recognized Abkhazia, along with the region of South Ossetia, as independent from Georgia following its 2008 invasion.
Protesters originally intended to demand that Bzhania drop an investment agreement that critics argue would have paved the way for wealthy Russians to buy up property in the region by easily out-pricing the local residents, reports said Friday.
But according to one opposition leader, Temur Gulia, the protest has morphed into an overall demand that Bzhania step down from the presidency, which he has held since 2020, Reuters reported.
He is not believed to have been in the parliamentary building at the time of the ambush.
The presidential administration reportedly said in a statement that authorities were preparing to withdraw the investment agreement, but another opposition leader, Eshsou Kakalia, maintained that the protesters would not leave until Bzhania steps down.
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If Bzhania were to step down, he would be the third leader to do so in Abkhazia since 2008.
“The Abkhazians don’t want to rejoin Georgia,” Will Stewart of East 2 West News explained to Fox News Digital. “They fought a bloody war against this, after all, or their fathers did.
“But nor do they want their culture and distinctive way of life overrun by super-rich Russians buying them up. And this is the risk now,” he added.
Stewart explained that Western sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine have likely prompted wealthy Russians to look to the beaches of Abkhazia for their new vacation destinations, but this is being met with opposition by the locals there.
Reports in late August 2008 suggested that separatist supporters in the regions championed the recognition by Moscow, and it remains unclear whether there has been a shift in attitude toward the Kremlin following its invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago.
The majority of nations across the globe do not recognize the breakaway region as separate from Georgia, and Moscow’s decision to do so under former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sparked outcry from then President George W. Bush, who said the move was “irresponsible.”
Similarly, then-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel argued that it violated the U.N.’s “understanding of the principle of territorial integrity and the fundamental international rights of nations” and said it was “unacceptable.”
The move, which came just weeks after Russian invaded Georgia, largely signified a fundamental shift in the era of post-Cold War cooperation between the West and Russia.
But despite strong condemnation from Western leaders in 2008, the West’s altogether muted response to the violation of Georgia’s territorial integrity essentially paved the way for Russia’s uninhibited invasion of Ukraine, first in 2014 and again in 2022.
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