On August 11-12, the Minister of Economy of the Russian Federation, Maxim Reshetnikov, was on a working visit in the occupied Abkhazia.

He, along with an accompanying delegation, held official meetings with the de facto President, Aslan Bzhania, the de facto Prime Minister, Alexander Ankvab, and the de facto Economy Minister, Kristina Ozgan.

In an interview with TASS, Mr. Reshetnikov noted that the cooperation between Russia and Abkhazia is moving from the phase of “restoration” to the phase of “development and progress” of the de facto republic. Therefore, the purpose of the meeting was to start a new stage of cooperation between the two “states” and to move from the implementation of targeted tasks to a unified state program.

The main part of the visit was dedicated to the discussion of issues related to the socio-economic development of Abkhazia, such as large investment projects, energy security issues and the humanitarian sphere of cooperation. According to Maxim Reshetnikov, parallel to the successful investment program, the investment potential of Abkhazia is attractive for Russian business, therefore we should expect an increase in Russian investments in the de facto republic in the future, especially in the tourism and energy sectors.

At the meeting with Alexander Ankvab, the main emphasis was placed on the 2022-2025 program for the economic development, legal mechanisms for protecting investors' interests, and prospects for interbank cooperation.

During the visit, the Russian delegation inspected a school in new Athos, a substation and treatment facilities in Gagra which were restored in 2014 within the framework of a new comprehensive plan for the promotion of socio-economic development.

Although utilization of the tourism potential of Abkhazia was named as one of the priority issues, Maxim Reshetnikov stated that the development of the tourism sector needs to be accompanied by the rehabilitation of water and energy supply system, mechanical cleaning of water and improvement of sanitary standards. At the end of the visit, Kristina Ozgan told APSNIPRESS that along with the above-mentioned issues, the conversation with the Russian delegation touched upon the increase of salaries of those “citizens” who are employed in the “public sector” of Abkhazia, the modernization of the engineering infrastructure, and the strengthening of the “state's” support for economic entities operating in the de facto republic.