Raul Khajimba

Raul Khajimba was born on 21 March 1958 in Tkvarcheli, where he went to school and worked as a mechanic at the power station. From 1976 until 1978, he served in the Soviet Air Defence Forces. From 1979 until 1984, he graduated from the Law Faculty of the Abkhazian State University. From 1985 until 1986 Khajimba studied at the KGB school in Minsk, and he subsequently served as a KGB agent in Tkvarcheli until 1992.

During the 1992–1993 war with Georgia, Khajimba was the head of the military intelligence and counterintelligence operation on the eastern front. For his work, he was awarded the Order of Leon.

From 1996 until 1998, Khajimba headed the anti-smuggling division of the State Customs Committee. In 1998, he became its Deputy chairman.[1]

Khadjimba was tipped as the favourite to win the October 2004 presidential elections, and was strongly endorsed by both outgoing president Ardzinba and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both men campaigned on his behalf and dedicated significant resources to assisting the Khadjimba campaign. However, opposition candidate Sergei Bagapsh polled more votes on election day, in what was widely attributed as a backlash against the strong Russian influence in his campaign.

After the election, both Bagapsh and Khadjimba claimed victory, with Khadjimba alleging that electoral fraud in the pro-Bagapsh Gali region had been responsible for Bagapsh's win. Ardzinba soon dismissed Khadjimba as Prime Minister, replacing him with a compromise candidate, Nodar Khashba, and two months of drawn-out disputes followed, involving public protests, court action and parliamentary proceedings.

In December 2004, Khadjimba and Bagapsh came to an agreement which would see the pair run as part of a national unity ticket in repeat elections, with Khadjimba running as Bagapsh's Vice-President. As part of this deal, the position of vice-president was given expanded powers covering defence and foreign affairs. The joint ticket easily won the January 2005 election, winning more than 90% of the vote.

However, in the aftermath of the election win, many analysts have suggested that Khadjimba's executive authority would be somewhat limited under the new arrangement, with Bagapsh and his Prime Minister, Alexander Ankvab, likely to maintain ultimate control over the areas of policy nominally assigned to the vice-president.

The controversy resurfaced again in June 2008, when Khadjimba attended a congress of the Aruaa veteran organisation, of which he is a member. The congress issued a statement criticizing the Bagapsh administration's "multi-vector foreign policy", referring to the talks with Georgian and Western diplomats, and called for greater ties with Russia. The pro-Bagapsh politicians from the Amtsakhara veteran organisation described Khadjimba's criticism of the government, in which he was a vice-president, "immoral". Later that month, Khadjimba reiterated his stance towards Bagapsh's foreign policy, stating that Abkhazia's only protector could be Russia and using force would be inevitable for gaining control of the upper Kodori Valley in northeastern Abkhazia, the only part of Abkhazia under Georgian control at the time.[12][13][14][15] In August 2008, the Abkhazian military did take the upper Kodory Valley by force during the August 2008 war over South Ossetia.[16]

On 18 May 2009 the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia and Aruaa issued a press statement and on 20 May they gave a press conference with several other opposition parties, on both occasions voicing severe criticism over the achievements of the government and recent foreign policy decisions.[17] On 28 May Khajimba resigned, saying that he agreed with the criticism,[18] but attributing his failure to tackle corruption and improve security to lack of room for maneuvre and no support from the president Bagapsh whom he also accused of violating the 2004 powersharing agreement and criticized him for signing a border protection agreement with Russia in 2009.[19]

Khajimba was inaugurated as president on 25 September 2014. Two months into his presidency, he signed a treaty with Russian president Vladimir Putin deepening ties between Abkhazia and Russia. Provisions of the agreement included placing the Abkhazian military under the direct control of Russia's armed forces and committing Abkhazia toward bringing its trade laws into alignment with the Eurasian Economic Union. The treaty was widely condemned in the West and by the Republic of Georgia, with US newspaper The New York Times suggesting the Abkhazian government had no choice but to agree to Putin's terms. However, Khajimba hailed closer ties with Russia as promoting "the full scope of guarantees for the safety of our state and extensive opportunities for the social and economic development".[35]

Raul Khajimba as the Leader of Abkhazia got awarded with Order of Leon (as Vice President in 2005), Order of Merit, II degree (Transnistria in 2006 as Vice President), Order of Merit, I Degree (Transnistria in 2015 as President), Order of Friendship (Republic of South Ossetia in 2015 as President), Order of Friendship (Transnistria in 2016 as President), and Umayyad Order (Syrian Arab Republic in 2018 as President).

Raul Khajimba was reelected in September 2019 after winning 26.33% of votes in the first round and 48.68% in the second. In January 2020 protests broke out against Khajimba. On 10 January the Supreme Court of Abkhazia declared Khajimba's victory in the 2019 presidential election nullified, and called for new elections on 22 March. On 12 January Khajimba resigned the presidency.[36]