
The strange normality of life in a breakaway state - bauc
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46510917
======
Salamat
It is not normal in Abkhazia at all, it is depressingly suffocating for the
young generation to survive there with no hope of normal life. There is no
longer any Russian financial support, they are broke now. Kids are allowed to
drink alcohol at an early age because of their old traditions, drugs and
suicide are rampant, even the coach of a football team was caught doing
cocaine, and the legal system is broke due to tribalism. I visited Abkhazia
last July, they are cut off, no airport, no seaport, just one crossing
controlled by Russians.No real economy, just Russian tourists who would
generate some business in the summer, now in winter I heard many calls for
help. (edited for spelling)

------
gk1
Honest question: I don’t get what is strange about this normality, can someone
share their perspective? Mine is skewed as I grew up in Transnistria and
visited a few years ago.

My guess is that it seems strange only if you expected those territories to be
in a constant state of war. No, they are not under siege, but life is not
exactly dandy there, either.

~~~
amaccuish
> I grew up in Transnistria

Can I ask, what's the main language? Russian right, not a dialect? Not
Ukranian? If I spoke Moscow Russian there would I be understood?

Also is it fairly socialist or...? Just wondering from all the СССР insignia.

~~~
gk1
Russian is the main language. I don’t know a word of Moldovan (which is
practically Romanian). Yes you’d be understood, minus some slang.

It is not socialist but the older generation seems to wish for those times to
return, when food and work were guaranteed.[1] Wealth is concentrated among
very few nefarious businessmen and politicians.

[1] Of course this is nonsense; times were just as difficult during the
USSR—bread lines, etc—but people’s memories are faulty.

------
duxup
Abkhazia lost more than half its population. That would change things fairly
dramatically.

~~~
99052882514569
"Lost" obscures the fact that the ethnic Georgian _majority_ of Abkhazia's
pre-1993 population was ethnically cleansed, with 20-30 thousand civilians
killed (most were brutally murdered, not mere collateral damage of
indiscriminate warfare).

This was accomplished against a rag-tag army of the newly independent Georgia
because the Abkhazian rebels were controlled (armed, financed, provided with
air support and heavy weaponry, and thousands of mercenaries) directly by
Russia.

Current breakaway Abkhazia is a byproduct of genocide and imperialism, pure
and simple.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_of_Georgians_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_cleansing_of_Georgians_in_Abkhazia)

~~~
Salamat
I think the Georgian fascist fervour was behind the drive of Abkhazian for
independence.I was told the other side of the story by several Abkhazians,
they said they were deprived of jobs, housing and oppressed by the Georgians
in their capital Sukhumi. I am saying their capital because Abkhazia was a
state before the USSR, they joined and were promised independence in case USSR
got dissolved, yet Georgian Stalin obstructed that and got rid of all
Abkhazian nationalists in his circle (source in the youtube this documentary:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGyyuxRPws](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGyyuxRPws).

~~~
99052882514569
Nothing justifies ethnic cleansing and mass murder. Abkhazia was not a state
before USSR. They were not in a position to bargain with anyone about joining
the Soviet Russia (USSR was created later). They were forcibly annexed like
all other parts of the former Russian Empire whom the Bolsheviks managed to
capture in a civil war.

------
fixvzbdjzis
Hmm the BBC didn’t mention Kosovo, which, after Cyprus, is maybe the most
geopolitically significant quasi-state

~~~
abrowne
I thought of that too, but Kosovo has much more recognition: "104 out of 193
(54%) United Nations (UN) member states, 23 out of 28 (82%) European Union
(EU) member states, 25 out of 29 (86%) NATO member states, and 35 out of 57
(61%) Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states have recognised
Kosovo."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_K...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Kosovo)

