Abkhaz variant

In the context of the conflict in Ukraine, the world community has begun to pay more attention to territories that are in close connection with Moscow. One of these regions is the Republic of Abkhazia, which has been one of Russia’s key minority partners for 15 years now. Let’s look at the structure of cooperation between the Russian Federation and Abkhazia in a little more detail.

It is no secret that the Russian Federation is a key market for the agricultural products of Abkhazia. The volume of exports of Abkhazia to Russia in this category of products amounted to almost 100 million dollars. This is 94% of the total supply from Abkhazia to Russia. Abkhazia is also actively importing goods from Russia. The total amount is about 200 million dollars. However, the key item of Abkhazia’s import from the Russian Federation is the Russian tourist. Russians actively spend holidays in sunny Abkhazia and leave a lot of money in the republic. At the end of 2021, more than 1 million Russians visited Abkhazia. At the same time, these tourists left about 750 million dollars in the Republic, which is many times more than all of Abkhazia’s exports to Russia. Given the difficulties with the departure of Russians to European countries, Abkhazia will undoubtedly receive even more Russian tourists in 2022. Against this background, Russian investors have already announced their intention to increase the volume of investments in infrastructure and tourism projects in Abkhazia. According to experts, investments in the tourism sector of Abkhazia by Russia in the next 2-3 years will grow by 10-15 times. Abkhazia is potentially a country from the “Number One” for a Russian tourist.

The key recipient of future investments should be the airport in Abkhazia, focused on working with airports in Russian cities. At present, the transport and logistics complex in Abkhazia is not in the best condition. However, given the interest from Russia, the likelihood of an early implementation of the project is quite high. Considering the situation and the status of Abkhazia itself, the orientation of the Abkhazian government towards close cooperation with Moscow looks both correct and uncontested. It is difficult to say now whether the Abkhaz development model is a template for the unrecognized DPR and LPR after the end of the conflict in Ukraine. But a certain guideline may well happen. However, much depends on the final status of the LPR and DPR.