Protests erupt in breakaway Georgian region over deal with Russia
A truck rammed the gates of parliament in the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Friday as hundreds protested against an investment agreement with Moscow that some Abkhaz fear will price them out of the property market.
A truck rammed the gates of parliament in the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Friday as hundreds protested against an investment agreement with Moscow that some Abkhaz fear will price them out of the property market.
Two people were injured in the clashes, Russia’s RIA state news agency cited local emergency services as saying. Russian media showed a truck ramming into the gates surrounding the parliament in the capital, Sukhumi.
Russia recognized Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia, as independent states in 2008 after Russian troops repelled a Georgian attempt to retake South Ossetia in a five-day war.
Most of the world recognizes Abkhazia as part of Georgia, from which it broke away during wars in the early 1990s, but Russian money has poured into the lush sub-tropical territory where Soviet-era spa resorts cling to the Black Sea coast.
Abkhazian lawmakers were set to vote on Friday on the ratification of an investment agreement signed in October in Moscow by Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov and his Abkhazian counterpart, Kristina Ozgan.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/protests-erupt-parliament-breakaway-georgian-region-rcna180307
Rating: 5