On the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 16, an agreement between the governments of the separatist Abkhazia and Russia "On the implementation by a Russian legal entity of an investment project for the resumption of activities and further operation of the Sokhumi International Airport named after Vladislav Ardzinba" was signed. From the Abkhazian side, the document was signed by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Christina Ozgan, and from the Russian side by Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov.

"I can say without exaggeration that this is a very important event for our country. An event that we have been waiting for almost 30 years. The implementation of this investment project will have a significant impact on the development of the economy of Abkhazia," Christina Ozgan said. According to her, the agreement defines the conditions and obligations of the parties in the implementation of the project and, in particular, the provision by the Republic of Abkhazia of a special investment regime that provides for preferences and benefits. "We are confident that the airport launch will increase the transport accessibility of the republic for tourists and expand our country's opportunities in the international transport and logistics system," the de-facto official noted.

According to Maxim Reshetnikov, restoring direct flights between Russia and Abkhazia is part of a large tourism development strategy that the two countries governments are developing together with the regions and businesses. "The reconstruction of the Sokhumi airport is a historic event for Abkhazia. The airport has not been operating for 30 years. This fact seriously hinders the development of business and tourism in the republic. For Russia, the new airport will solve two important tasks at once - it will remove the extreme congestion from the Sochi airport and from the Adler multilateral automobile checkpoint, which today are the main entry points to Abkhazia for Russian citizens," the Russian minister said. "At the first stage, it is planned to reconstruct 2.4 out of 3.6 km of the runway, allowing the airport to receive passenger aircraft of the SSJ-100, MS-21 type, and cargo IL-76. The annual traffic volume at the first stage of reconstruction is expected to be 375.8 thousand passengers. The second stage of restoration work will begin upon reaching the mark of 1 million passengers per year. In case of timely implementation of the project, the resumption of the airport's activities is planned in the fourth quarter of 2024," Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dmitry Volvach said.

For this event to take place, work was done in which the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Transport of Russia, and the Federal Air Transport Agency participated. The document's text was developed by specialists of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia as part of the implementation of Russian President Vladimir Putin's instruction on restoring direct flights between Russia and Abkhazia. According to the agreement, the Russian side undertakes to fulfill all the conditions of the investment project, while the Abkhaz side provides the contractor with exclusive state guarantees for the protection of property rights to the objects created within the framework of the investment project, unchanged conditions of tax rates and tax benefits, as well as obligations to provide land plots on a priority basis. Restoration work will be carried out in two stages, at the expense of a private investor, without attracting funds from the federal budget. According to a preliminary estimate by the Ministry of Transport of Russia, the Federal Air Transport Agency, and a potential investor, the cost of the first stage of reconstruction will be 6.5 billion rubles.

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