Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Georgia’s breakaway Republic of Abkhazia in early August served to highlight once again Moscow’s uneasy and difficult relationship with that particular client.
Nine years after Russia (and virtually no one else) formally recognized Abkhazia as an independent state, rising crime there could pose a potential threat both to Moscow’s long-term interests in that republic and to the nearby Russian town of Sochi, one of the venues for next year’s FIFA World Cup.
