Vladislav Ardzinba was an Abkhaz historian and politician who served as the first de facto president of Abkhazia. Ardzinba led Abkhazia to de facto independence in the 1992–1993 War with Georgia, but its de jure independence from Georgia remained internationally unrecognised during Ardzinba's two terms as President from 1994 to 2005. His government orchestrated ethnic cleansing of Georgian civilians in Abkhazia in 1993.
Raul Jumkovich Khajimba is an Abkhazian politician who served as President of Abkhazia from 25 September 2014 until 12 January 2020. He was also Chairman of the Forum for the National Unity of Abkhazia from 2010 to 2015. Khajimba previously held the offices of Vice President (2005–2009), Prime Minister (2003–2004) and Defence Minister (2002–2003). He unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, 2009 and 2011. He resigned the presidency in 2020 due to protests against him.
Amtsakhara is a political party in Abkhazia.
The prime minister of Abkhazia is the de facto head of government of the partially recognized Republic of Abkhazia, that is de jure part of Georgia.
The office of Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia was created on 17 May 1993, during the 1992–1993 war with Georgia. Empirical data nevertheless show that Abkhazia's Foreign Ministry also enacts diplomatic relations, such as the sending of diplomatic notes, with various countries across the world, including Nauru, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Syria. It is also active in managing relations with other post-Soviet de facto states such as South Ossetia, Transnistria, and the Lugansk People's Republic.
Gennadi Leonidipa Gagulia was an Abkhazian politician who was three-time prime minister of Abkhazia and the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He served as the first prime minister of Abkhazia after the post was established by the constitution in 1995, holding it until 1997. He returned to the post in 2002 and remained for several months into 2003, and held it for a final time in 2018 until he was killed in a car crash.
Viacheslav Mikhail-ipa Tsugba was the third Prime Minister of the Republic of Abkhazia from December 1999 to May 2001. Before his appointment as prime minister, Tsugba had headed the Central Election Committee, which had overseen the internationally unrecognised simultaneously held October 1999 presidential election and constitutional referendum.
Sergei Uasyl-ipa Bagapsh was an Abkhaz politician who served as the second President of Abkhazia from 12 February 2005 until his death on 29 May 2011. He previously served as Prime Minister of Abkhazia from 1997 to 1999. He was re-elected in the 2009 presidential election. Bagapsh's term as prime minister included the 1998 war with Georgia, while he oversaw both the recognition of Abkhazia by Russia and the Russo-Georgian War during his presidency.
Sergei Shamba is a senior politician from Abkhazia. He is currently a member of the People's Assembly of Abkhazia and Chairman of United Abkhazia. He was Prime Minister of Abkhazia under President Sergei Bagapsh from 13 February 2010 until 27 September 2011. Between 1997 and 2010 he had been Minister for Foreign Affairs under both Bagapsh and his predecessor Vladislav Ardzinba, with only a half-year interruption in 2004. Shamba has twice unsuccessfully participated in presidential elections, in 2004 and 2011. He has been a staunch proponent for dialogue between Abkhazia and Georgia.
Aleksandr Zolotinskovich Ankvab is an Abkhaz politician and businessman who was the president of Abkhazia from 29 May 2011 until his resignation on 1 June 2014. He previously served as prime minister from 2005 to 2010 and as vice-president from 2010 to 2011 during the presidency of Sergei Bagapsh. He was appointed prime minister again on 23 April 2020 and resigned following the 2024 Abkhazian protests.
United Abkhazia is a political party in Abkhazia. United Abkhazia was founded on March 25, 2004, as a socio-political movement, with the specific goal of presenting a single opposition candidate for the October 2004 presidential elections.
Irakli Alasania is a Georgian politician, soldier and former diplomat who served as the Minister of Defense of Georgia from 2012 to 2014. He was Georgia's Ambassador to the United Nations from September 11, 2006, until December 4, 2008. His previous assignments include Chairman of the Government of Abkhazia(-in-exile) and the President of Georgia's aide in the Georgian-Abkhaz talks. Soon after his resignation, Alasania withdrew into opposition to the Mikheil Saakashvili administration, setting up the Our Georgia – Free Democrats party in July 2009. In 2012 Alasania was appointed Minister of Defense, a position he held until 2014.
Presidential elections were held in Abkhazia on 3 October 2004, the first that were competitive. Election law prohibited incumbent President Vladislav Ardzinba from running for a third term and he instead backed Prime Minister Raul Khadjimba, who also enjoyed support from the Russian authorities. Khadjimba's main opponent was Sergei Bagapsh, who was supported by the two major opposition parties, United Abkhazia and Amtsakhara, and later also by Aitaira when their candidate Alexander Ankvab was barred from running in a controversial decision by the Central Election Commission.
Though tensions had existed between Georgia and Russia for years and more intensively since the Rose Revolution, the diplomatic crisis increased significantly in the spring of 2008, namely after Western powers recognized the independence of Kosovo in February and following Georgian attempts to gain a NATO Membership Action Plan at the 2008 Bucharest Summit; and while the eventual war saw a full-scale invasion of Georgia by Russia, the clashes that led up to it were concentrated in the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two separatist Georgian regions that received considerable Russian support over the years.
Presidential elections were held in Abkhazia on 12 December 2009, the fourth such elections since the post of President of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia was created in 1994. The result was a victory for incumbent president Sergei Bagapsh, who received 63% of the vote, winning a second term in office. Bagapsh competed against four opposition candidates: former vice president and prime minister Raul Khajimba, who came second behind Bagapsh in the 2004 presidential election, and newcomers Beslan Butba, Zaur Ardzinba and Vitali Bganba. Khajimba had stated that he, Ardzinba and Butba would support each other should one of them reach the second round of the election. Bagapsh was inaugurated on 12 February 2010.
The Government of President Vladislav Ardzinba was the first Government of the Republic of Abkhazia.
Givi Kamugovich Agrba was a politician from Abkhazia.
The State Security Service of Abkhazia is the principal security and intelligence agency of Abkhazia.
Aslan Georgievich Bzhania is an Abkhaz politician who served as the fifth president of Abkhazia from 23 April 2020 until his resignation on 19 November 2024. He was the Head of the State Security Service from 2010 to 2014, and one of the leaders of the opposition in Abkhazia from 2016. He ran in the 2019 presidential election, but was forced to withdraw due to poisoning. He won the subsequent 2020 presidential election.
The events in 2010 in Georgia.
