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The president of Abkhazia, a Russia-backed breakaway region in Georgia, has stepped down after protesters stormed government buildings and clashed with police over a contentious law granting Russian businesses major tax breaks.
Aslan Bzhania announced on Tuesday he was resigning in order to “preserve stability and constitutional order” in the region, which declared its independence in 1999 — a status recognised only by Moscow and a few other capitals.
The unrest in Abkhazia comes at a time of political turmoil in Georgia, where the pro-Russia ruling party’s recent electoral victory has been met with widespread protests and has prompted the opposition to refuse to take up its parliamentary seats in the nation’s capital, Tbilisi.
Bzhania’s resignation is part of the deal struck with the opposition stipulating that protesters will vacate “the…
