SUKHUMI, Georgia (AFP) — Georgia's separatist region of Abkhazia is to launch a formal appeal Wednesday for Russia to recognise it as an independent country, the deputy speaker of Abkhazia's parliament told AFP.
"The people of Abkhazia intend to ask the Russian leadership to recognise Abkhazia," said the rebel republic's deputy speaker Vyacheslav Tsugba.
On Wednesday Abkhazia's parliament will consider an independence appeal to the Russian leadership by the region's leader Sergei Bagapsh, Tsugba said.
On Thursday a broad assembly with representatives of all the region's political parties and movements will meet on a square in the centre of the capital Sukhumi to finally approve the appeal, he said.
The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, a close Kremlin ally, said Wednesday that lawmakers were ready to recognise the independence of separatist regions in Georgia, Interfax reported.
"The Federation Council is ready to recognise the independent status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia if that is what the people of these republics want and also if there is a corresponding decision by the Russian president," Sergei Mironov was quoted as saying.
The South Ossetians say they want to become part of Russia, while the Abkhaz are seeking independence.
Both territories are recognised internationally as being part of Georgia, including by Russia, but Moscow has financed and supported the rebels there for years.
Tens of thousands of ethnic-Georgians, who used to form the majority population in Abkhazia, have been expelled from their homes over the last 15 years and remain displaced inside Georgia.
Thousands of other Georgians have fled South Ossetia over the last week following the rout by Russia of Georgia's army there.
Both regions have enjoyed de facto independence since breaking from Tbilisi in wars in the early 1990s, but no country has recognized either region.
Any move toward formal independence would likely meet an angry response from Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who came to power promising to take both regions back under Tbilisi's control.
Russian diplomats see a parallel between the predicament faced by South Ossetians and Abkhazians and the fate of Kosovo's Albanian majority, which unilaterally seceded from Serbia last February despite vehement opposition from Belgrade and Moscow.
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