SUKHUMI/Georgia, JULY 16 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russian tourists are flocking to beach resorts in Abkhazia at a greater rate than ever before, giving the breakaway Georgian region an economic boost.

Russian couples walk along Sukhumi’s beachfront promenade and sip Abkhaz wine in newly renovated restaurants. Russian is the main language heard on the streets, shops are filled with Russian products and Russian newspapers are available in local newsagents. The currency used is the Russian rouble.

Abkhazia looks, feels and sounds like a piece of Russia and local residents are, mainly, grateful.

A tourist guide in Novy Afon, around 20km north of Sukhumi told the Bulletin : “Thank God there are the Russians. Not only did they save us when the Georgians wanted to exterminate us but now they make our economy run through tourism.”

It declared independence from Georgia in 1992, triggering a war that killed and displaced thousands of people and lead to a de facto independence. In 2008 after a war with Georgia focused on its two rebel states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia recognised them as independent. Only a handful of other countries looking to curry Russian favours followed.

Moscow subsidises Abkhazia’s state budget and has thousands of troops permanently deployed in the region.

Other than the military and the breakaway region’s administration, bankrolled by the Kremlin, there are few other jobs in Abkhazia, making Russian tourists so important.

And they are coming in their thousands, all via a border crossing with Russia to the north. Last year Avtandil Gartskiya, the tourism minister told the New York Times in an interview that he expected 1.5m tourists per year, up from less than 100,000 a decade ago.

By contrast, references to Georgia have been eradicated, or nearly.

The cuisine gives away Abkhazia’s Georgian connection. Georgia’s food icon, the Ajarian Khachapuri, a boat shaped crusty bread filled with melted cheese and egg, is a firm favourite with the Russian tourists. It’s been subjected to a rebrand, though, and is called ‘lodochka s yaizom’. In English, this simply means ‘boat with egg’.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)