Russian political strategists who worked for the NGO Team Abkhazia were reportedly deported from Abkhazia after a clash occurred between them and opposition MP Kan Kvarchiya.
On Wednesday, Kvarchiya and others, including journalist Nizfa Arshba — who has been designated a foreign agent in Russia — came to the office where the strategists were working and confronted them on camera.
In the videos, they can be seen asking the Russian ‘journalists’ what they are doing in Abkhazia and if they have the proper registration and accreditation.
One of the individuals, Ivan Repa, responds that he only has a press pass — issued by the ‘Civil–Military Administration of Zaporizhzhia Oblast’ in Russian-occupied Ukraine. When asked later if he was from Abkhazia, Repa says he was from Sevastopol, Crimea. One of his colleague’s identification cards was issued by the ‘Military Commissariat of the Luhansk People’s Republic’, also in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Repa and the others identified as ‘Russian political strategists’ said they were working for the free newspaper Abkhazian Herald.
The confrontation visibly grew increasingly tense, before apparently turning violent. In a video recorded the next day, Repa claimed he had been struck in the face and was threatened that they would shoot him.
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Following the confrontation, Abkhazian law enforcement officers came to the office and took away the three Russian citizens.
Abkhazia’s Security Service (FSB) later commented on the incident, saying an investigation had been launched, but added that the public should ‘refrain from premature conclusions and spreading unverified facts’.
Local media then reported that the three Russian nationals had been deported from Abkhazia.
The incident was illustrative of the increasingly contentious environment ahead of Abkhazia’s municipal elections and the controversial role that Team Abkhazia is playing.
Team Abkhazia was organised by Giorgi Gabunia, winner of the Team Abkhazia competition. The competition was organised for Abkhazian officials immediately after the presidential elections in February 2025, which resulted in a victory for Badra Gunba.
The competition was initiated and funded by the Russian presidential administration and its first deputy chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, who has become the Kremlin’s pointperson in Abkhazia.
Under Abkhazian law, the executive administration, under Gunba, cannot openly campaign in municipal elections, but Team Abkhazia is widely seen to be acting as both the proxy of Gunba and Russia.
Members of Team Abkhazia have been involved in other controversial incidents and episodes of questionable campaign practices.
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On 4 November, staff from one of the candidate’s headquarters filed a complaint with the Sukhumi (Sukhum) Electoral Commission, stating that posters featuring their candidate were being torn down. Commission members contacted the Sukhumi City Internal Affairs Department, where they received a response that the department is aware of the situation and is working to identify the perpetrators.
The office where Repa and the other Russian ‘journalists’ were working was found by following the trail of those who were tearing down candidates’ posters, opposition figures said, noting that only posters of candidates not linked to Team Abkhazia were being defaced. Brochures identifying which candidates are connected to Team Abkhazia were also found in the office where the Russian ‘journalists’ were working.
The head of the Sukhumi Election Commission, Almas Dzhapua, has said the pattern of poster defacement and other similar activities are intended to be deliberately provocative.
‘Tearing down posters and engaging in provocative activities two days before the election is definitely a provocation against a number of candidates. The people who did this were clearly counting on some excitement, a surge of emotions, to prevent the elections from taking place’, Dzhapua told a local television channel.
On Thursday, a group of political parties and other civil society organisations released a joint statement decrying the ‘gross violations’ that have already occurred in the electoral campaign, as well as ‘the use of administrative resources in favour of pro-government candidates’ and the ‘improper interference’ of foreign political consultants, clearly referring to Repa and the other Russian nationals.
‘What is happening is a direct consequence of the policies of former President Aslan Bzhaniya and the tacit consent, and sometimes even assistance, of President Badra Gunba, aimed at dividing the country’s citizens into pro-Russian and anti-Russian’, the statement read.
During the presidential election in February 2025, a similar situation occurred, with Abkhazians being ‘artificially divided’ into different camps — pro-Western, pro-Turkish, and pro-Russia, the statement read.
‘Today, we are witnessing a continuation of the same bacchanalia in the local government elections. The invited PR specialists crossed all acceptable boundaries and moral norms, basing their activities on primitive bribery and outright lies’.
‘We are convinced that the new leadership of the country should immediately remove the issue of “mythical anti-Russian forces in Abkhazia” from the agenda of Russian–Abkhaz relations, as it harms the peoples of Russia and Abkhazia and destabilises the political situation’ in Abkhazia, the statement read, concluding with a demand that Gunba’s administration work to ensure the upcoming election remains free and fair.
For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.
Nate Ostiller
