On February 8, the press office of the de facto President of Abkhazia, Aslan Bzhania, released information, that during a working visit to Moscow, Bzhania met with a number of high-ranking Russian officials, including the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov.

According to reports, Bzhania went to Moscow on January 30 together with the de facto Minister of Economy, Kristina Ozgan, and the de facto Minister of Energy and Transport, Jansug Nanba. The purpose of the visit was to resolve the fuel crisis in Abkhazia. The crisis arose after Russia’s decision to grant only Rosneft the right to import oil products to Abkhazia. During this period, no additional information was disseminated about Bzhania's visit. The de facto President visits Russia quite often, although information about his visits is not always circulated. The Abkhaz Telegram channels often write that his visits are related to health problems or personal affairs. However, his last visit turned out to be an exception.

During his visit to Moscow, Bzhania met with Lavrov, Dmitry Kozak, the Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Maxim Reshetnikov, the Minister of Economic Development of Russia, Alexander Novak, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government, and Rashid Nurgaliyev, the Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council. The mentioned civil servants supervise the direction of the occupied regions of Georgia in the Russian government. In addition, Bzhania met with Ella Pamfilova, the Chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) and Daniil Egorov, the Head of the Federal Tax Service.

The prospects of bilateral cooperation in energy and socio-economic issues were discussed within the framework of the negotiations. It should be noted that no more information about the meeting with Lavrov or other high-ranking officials of Russia was published in the media. Notesworthy is that a day before the announcement of Bzhania's press service, on February 7, Bzhania initiated the „draft law“ on „foreign agents“ for discussion in the so-called parliament.