22:20, 1 June 2014

Alexander Ankvab hands seal of Abkhazian President over to Valery Bganba

Alexander Ankvab. Sukhum, March 24, 2014. Photo © Ministry of Communications and Mass Media of the Abkhazian President, http://www.abkhaziagov.org/president/press/photo/2014-03-24-140000

Alexander Ankvab has handed the seal of the Abkhazian President to Valery Bganba, Parliament Speaker, appointed by the Parliament as Acting President of Abkhazia. This was reported by Kristian Bjaniya, Press Secretary of Alexander Ankvab.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on Sunday, Abkhazian President Alexander Ankvab has announced his resignation from the position of the leader of the republic.

In his turn, Abkhazian Prime Minister Leonid Lakerbaya has announced that he has not resigned and that he does not intend to. Nugzar Ashuba, Secretary of Security Council, believes that the Prime Minister will have to resign too.

He has added that "the republic faces unusual situation, and actually Acting President is to appoint Acting Prime Minister." According to him, all government ministers will retain their seats and become acting ministers until the elections.

Earlier it was reported that after the anti-government rally held on May 27 in Sukhumi, the opposition captured several government buildings and announced that they took the control over Abkhazia. Alexander Ankvab treated the incident as an attempt of a coup d'etat.

See earlier reports: "Alexander Ankvab has no chances to regain power, opposition states", "Alexander Ankvab denies reports about resignation of government, General Prosecutor and heads of districts of Abkhazia", "President of Abkhazia upholds dismissal of CoM, General Public Prosecutor and heads of two districts".