Russia said today that she is worried about the events in Abkhazia and has called on its citizens to leave the region, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
"Russia is following with concern the events in neighboring friendly Abkhazia," said the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova. "A crisis situation has developed in the republic," she added.
The ministry recommended that Russian citizens "refrain from traveling to Abkhazia" and those already there to leave.
After a brief war in which the Russian army entered Georgian territory in 2008, Moscow recognized the independence of Abkhazia and the other breakaway region bordering Russia, South Ossetia, noted Reuters. Since then, Russia has maintained a military presence there, Reuters recalls.
The self-proclaimed republic unilaterally declared independence from Georgia after the collapse of the USSR and pushed back Georgian armed forces during the war in the early 1990s, with Moscow's unofficial support.