On December 27, at an extraordinary session of the [de-facto] Parliament, Abkhaz MPs ratified the Agreement on the transfer of the Bichvinta State Land. 

Speaker Lasha Ashuba came out to the protesters and announced the decisions taken: "Everyone was worried about this situation. Also, the deputies of the Parliament, the people who came to the Parliament, had a lot of worries. Today, we received several delegations and discussed several options for adopting this agreement to secure the republic."

"The first option related to coordinates was accepted by the Russian side, and we received it. The issue related to 'third parties' remained. There was a corresponding meeting of the authorities' and opposition representatives, where we came to a consensus document. This is the introduction of amendments to the relevant laws. These are the law on international treaties, the Civil Code, and a special constitutional law that deals specifically with the transfer of the state dacha, which states that in case of transfer of the object to third parties, the agreement is terminated, and the property is returned to the Republic of Abkhazia. Such a decision was discussed between representatives of the authorities and the opposition," he added.

"Subsequently, these decisions were sent to the Parliament, and we started the discussion. Deputies did not want to vote for an agreement with only a change of coordinates but later came to a consensus where deputies would vote for an agreement with a change of coordinates and the impossibility of transferring the object to third parties. We passed three laws in an extraordinary session with 28 deputies present and ratified the agreement with 26 votes. We adopted all the documents in the first, second, and third final reading," the de-facto official noted.

Moreover, Aslan Bzhania, the de-facto president of the separatist group Abkhazia, signed the ratification document at 9 AM [local time]. The protests continue even now [local time 17:50]. Furthermore, Bzhania banned the transfer of objects to third parties on the territory of the Bichvinta state resort. He signed the Constitutional Law "On measures to implement the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Abkhazia and the Government of the Russian Federation on the transfer into the ownership of the Russian Federation of objects on the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia and the order of their use."

The law establishes a ban on the transfer to third parties during the period of validity of the agreement of objects, land plots, and areas of the sea area specified in Articles 3 and 4 of the agreement, as well as on the constructed buildings, structures, and facilities specified in Article 5 of the agreement. A ban on the transfer to third parties in case of termination (denunciation) of the agreement of the objects, land plots, and areas of the seawater area specified in Articles 3, 4, and 5 of the agreement is also established.

When the extraordinary session was called at 8 AM [local time], opposition representatives were in front of the de-facto Parliament. There were many barricades around the de-facto parliamentary building complex, and so-called law enforcement officials were present at the protest site. Both the so-called Interior Minister and the de-facto Prosecutor General have issued warnings to the public, saying that [de-facto] law enforcement agencies are obliged to apply the full range of measures, up to and including bringing the organizers and participants of mass riots to account, as provided for by current [so called] legislation, in case of a threat to the security of the civilian population, destabilization of the public situation in the [separatist] republic.

Notably, the complex of state cottages in Bichvinta was built in 1958-1961 by order of Nikita Khrushchev, the former First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The territory of the state resort in Bichvinta is 180 hectares. Russia currently leases this territory according to the 1995 agreement with the separatist regime. However, the new agreement in question provides for the territory to be fully owned by Russia. The intergovernmental agreement on this was signed in January 2022.

Russian ambassador tries to calm down the situation

A day before, [de-facto] Abkhazian Foreign Minister Inal Ardzinba and Russian Ambassador to Abkhazia Mikhail Shurgalin answered questions about the transfer of the state dacha "Bichvinta".

The Russian ambassador noted, "The transfer initially did not cause any doubts, but later this issue became an object for criticism from some opposition-minded citizens of Abkhazia. Criticism is a good thing, but it is not always objective and does not always contribute to the development of bilateral relations." In his opinion, several fundamental points are clear to specialists, but the general public does not always perceive them adequately. "This agreement does not provide for the transfer of the land on which the facility is located to the Russian Federation. The territory is leased for 49 years. Only buildings are transferred into ownership, the maintenance and repair of which will be carried out by the Russian FSO," the ambassador emphasized.

He added that inaccuracies in the list of control points, which determine the boundaries of the water area and the facility's site, were corrected through an exchange of diplomatic notes. According to Shurgalin, various representatives of NGOs in Abkhazia are trying to exploit the topic of the agreement, while in the "society itself, there are few questions about the transfer of the object." 

Reactions

President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili condemned "another land grab by Russia in Georgian territories and their creeping annexation policies." "The strong popular reaction we see around the Bichvinta transfer is a direct result of continued occupation," President Zurabishvili called on the international community for an urgent reaction.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia called the ratification of the agreement on the transfer of Bichvinta another illegal act and the continuation of Russia’s policy of occupation of the indivisible regions of Georgia, which grossly violates the fundamental principles of international law. According to the ministry, as per international law, the ratification has no legality and is void under the occupation regime. The ministry is calling on the international community to properly assess the Russian Federation’s yet another illegal step towards undermining Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Georgian side called on the Russian Federation to respect Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to fulfill its obligations, including under the 2008 ceasefire agreement brokered by the European Union.