The Abkhazian organization of veterans “Aruaa” accuses de-facto Abkhazian Prime Minister Aleksandr Ankvab of lobbying Georgian interests. The organization protests over the statement of Ankvab who described deprivation of Gali region’s locals of their Abkhazian passports as ‘unfair.’

“We call on Prime Minister not to transform the problem into ethnic dimensions flaming the nationalist mood since the case does not concern the ethnic background of locals of Abkhazia’s eastern districts. This has to do with the fact that the majority of Gali locals are Georgian citizens,” reads the statement released by the organization.

The organization members claim that the law prohibits dual citizenship and Russian citizenship serves as the only exception. They also call on Ankbab for publicly rebuffing his statement.

“Unfortunately, Ankvab lobbies for the interests of the country with which we are at war and ignores issues that concern the security of our citizens,” the statement said. Members of the political party “Apsni” also criticized Ankbab for this statement. That said that the “new government was considering cooperation with Georgia during hard economic situation.”