Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, said on October 29, that “provocative articles” in the Russian press amounted to a pressure on Abkhazia to resolve property-related disputes.

Such approach “will not promote the resolving of the problem,” Abkhaz news agency, Apsnipress, reported quoting Bagapsh.

He made the remarks at the first session of Abkhaz-Russian joint commission, which was established “to secure legality while resolving” property rights of Russian citizens in Abkhazia. The commission includes senior officials from the breakaway region and representatives from the Russian prosecutor’s office and the Russian ambassador to Sokhumi.

Moscow-proposed commission to tackle property disputes of the Russian citizens in the breakaway region triggered controversy and debates in Sokhumi starting from August. The opponents of the proposal criticized it as they feared it could pave the way for the return of thousands of those Georgians, who fled Abkhazia after the armed conflict in early 90s and who now reside in Russia, holding Russian passports. 

Officials in Sokhumi eventually agreed to establish such a commission, but they were saying that each and every case of dispute would carefully studied before taking decisions.

“This problem is a trouble not only for Abkhazia, but for many other republics in post-war situation. But it does not release us from the responsibility and necessity to resolve the issue,” Bagapsh said on October 29.