“Abashidze has fled, Adjara is free,” President Saakashvili said at a press conference on May 6.

Aslan Abashidze, who unilaterally ruled Georgia’s western region of Adjara at the Black Sea Coast for past decade, left for Moscow after the overnight talks with the Secretary of Russian National Security Council Igor Ivanov in Batumi. 

“He left for Russia. President will arrive in the morning in Adjara to thank the local population,” Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze told reporters.