Sixteen polling stations will be opened in Abkhazia for the March 18 Russian presidential election, “Russian ambassador to Abkhazia” Semyon Grigoriev said at his January 12 meeting with Moscow-backed Abkhaz leader Raul Khajimba and other local officials. 

Khajimba’s administration reported after the meeting that “prime minister” Beslan Bartsits was tasked with coordinating the preparatory works. “The government will do its best to conduct the Russian presidential elections in Abkhazia at a high standard, just like it happened previous times,” Bartsits noted.

“Russian ambassador to South Ossetia” Marat Kulakhmetov and Tskhinvali leader Anatoly Bibilov convened a similar meeting on January 15, with the latter calling on the voters to fulfil their “civic duty” and “take active part in the upcoming presidential elections of the Russian Federation.”

Nine electoral polling stations are to be opened in South Ossetia; five of them in the town of Tskhinvali, and the other four – in the centers of Znauri, Java and Akhalgori districts and in village Dmenisi.

89,000 residents of Abkhazia were registered for Russia’s presidential polls in 2012, according to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation. The corresponding number for Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia stood at 36,500.