Russians who lost houses in Abkhazia appeal against court ruling in favour of MFA

The Russians who had lost their housing facilities in Abkhazia lodged a cassation complaint against the court decision, which upheld the actions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in addressing their property issues in this Caucasian republic.

The "Caucasian Knot" was told by Valentina Shevchenko, one of the claimants, that on July 14 the Presnya District Court of Moscow repeatedly acquitted the Russian MFA, having thus rejected the claim of the Russians who had lost their homes. However, the higher instance - the Moscow City Court - has already put, as Ms Shevchenko said, the claimants' cassation application to consideration and appointed the session on that case for November 1.

"There are grounds here for applying to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) under the First Protocol to the Convention (the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), - comment of the "Caucasian Knot"), and although Abkhazia is not a member of the Council of Europe; it's a non-recognized state even, I still think that the international law may recognize Russia's responsibility for solving this problem," said Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Committee "Civil Assistance", and added that in her opinion it is the only way to somehow push the problem.

Abkhazia also sees plenty of litigations under claims of the Russians who try to defend their property rights. Thus, for example, the republic's court is considering the case of Ms Shevchenko, whose property, according to her story, has been already registered to some Abkhazian, in spite of the fact that earlier her mother lived in that flat. The Russian believes that Abkhasians had taken advantage of her mother's illness, literally moved her out of the apartment, issued a death certificate on her, recognized the apartment as "ownerless" and then twice resold it.

According to claimants and human rights activists, Abkhazia has now hundreds of such cases. Nobody knows exact figures; however, in the opinion of Varvara Pakhomenko, an employee of the organization "Legal Initiative for Russia", we can speak about hundreds of Russians. Earlier, the victims who had lodged their claims against the MFA reported that up to 4000 citizens of Russia are in the same situation in the republic.

According to the data of the Russia's ambassador to Abkhazia, presented on September 10 in Sukhumi at a press conference, as of today, various Russian and Abkhazian instances received 120 applications from Russians on property issues.