Despite the long protests of part of the population of Abkhazia, activists, civil society and opposition forces, the de facto parliament of Abkhazia met today, December 27, at 6 o’clock in the morning and made a decision to transfer the Bichvinta country house to Russia.
The decision was supported by 25 of the 28 [total 35] deputies present.
The Abkhazian community and activists who opposed the decision wrote about it on social networks throughout the night, and civilians gathered at the de facto parliament building to hold a protest rally, seeing participants calling the decision of the de facto parliament “shameful” and demanding an annulment.
The de facto government claims that only the buildings of state country houses will be transferred to Russia with a 49-year lease, not the land on which the buildings stand. Yet, according to the draft agreement on Bichvinta State Country House, 186 hectares of land and 115 hectares of sea space are to be transferred to the ownership of the Russian Federation. All buildings and structures become the property of the Federal Protection Service, and the Black Sea aquatoria, with its surrounding lands, transferred to Russia on a 49-year lease. Because part of the Abkhazian society, even the oppositional and less politicized population, was against said agreement, it took more than a year for the Abkhaz parliament to ratify the law on consent to transfer the Bichvinta territory to Russia.
It was noted that in the prepared agreement on the transfer of Bichvinta country house to Russia, errors were made in the coordinates of the country house and surrounding areas. The so-called president of occupied Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhania, said that the errors related to the coordinates had been corrected and a new document had been sent.
The decision made by the separatist parliament regarding the transfer of Bichvinta country house to the Russian Federation is in essence the illegal alienation of Georgian property, and is being assessed by Georgian politicians and experts as the beginning of the annexation of Georgia.
