audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more - Far from the battlefields of Donetsk, Russia has its hand in another conflict which may foretell eastern Ukraine's fate. The tiny rebel statelet of Abkhazia, on Russia's southern border has been in a 'frozen' war with Georgia for more than 20 years. Situated in the north-western corner of Georgia with the Black Sea to the south-west and the Caucasus mountains and Russia to the north-east, Abkhazia was once known as a prime holiday destination for the Soviet elite. Abkhazia's battle for independence from Georgia since the collapse of the USSR reduced the economy to ruins. More recent times have seen major Russian investment in the territory, as Moscow seeks to consolidate its influence. Russia's involvement in the territory is increasingly looking like a kind of slow-motion annexation, but in the fiercely independent Caucasus mountains even the Kremlin must move carefully.
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Oct. 5, 2014 - Gagra, Abkhazia, Georgia - VLADIMIR SALANGIN swims off of Gagra beach. The 21-year-old works as a security guard in southern Russia and had seen the sea for the first time the day before this picture was taken. With its 6 Euro a day rooms, and 1 Euro local beer, the resort town is hugely popular with working class Russians who descend on Gagra in the millions during the summer months.
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Aug. 5, 2014 - Gagra, Abkhazia, Georgia - Lenin looms over young Russians on their tablets and iphones in a soviet-era sanitorium. An administrator said the statue, installed in the foyer in 1953, was popular with older Russian tourists. 'It's nostalgia, they have good memories of the Soviet Union.'
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Aug. 13, 2013 - Gali, Abkhazia, Georgia - Archeological ruins of a college in Gali, near the 'border' with Georgia, where ethnic Georgians made up 96% of the region's pre-war population. Most fled, or were driven out of their homes after the war. Today Gali is a twilight zone of empty buildings and overgrown farmland.
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July 23, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - Swimming instructor VICTOR ZADAROZHNY demonstrates the backstroke to his young students on the beach. In Soviet days he taught in a nearby swimming pool but the war and subsequent economic collapse ruined the facility.
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July 26, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - The charred interior of the parliament building. After 13 months of bitter fighting, a ceasefire was agreed and many civilians returned. Then, in autumn 1993 Abkhazian fighters broke the ceasefire and attacked. On September 27, the last Georgian troops were driven down these stairs as the building burned around them. Abkhazians, and their Chechen allies then fanned out through the city rounding up ethnic Georgians. The 'Massacre of Sukhumi' which followed helped tip international opinion to side with Georgia. Abkhazia had won the war, but their claims of nationhood were rejected.
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Sept. 29, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - ALKHAZ KURKUNAVA, a sergeant in the Abkhazian army photographed before a parade celebrating 21 years of de facto independence from Georgia. Asked if he would fight if Russia attempted annexation, the artillery specialist hedged, 'It's not that I'm afraid of anything, I'd just rather not answer.' Amongst the soldiers there are different opinions on this question.
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Aug. 3, 2013 - Gagra, Abkhazia, Georgia - Russian vacationers on the beach in Abkhazia.
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July 26, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - Sukhumi locals on a ruined pier. Pre-war Abkhazia accounted for most of Georgia's coastline and was famous as the Soviet Union's 'Red Riviera.'' Following the war, international sanctions and a naval blockade devastated the region's economy. Today it is a contrast of natural beauty and ravaged infrastructure.
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July 31, 2014 - Gagra, Abkhazia, Georgia - Boxing trainer LIZBAR JALOGUA spars with a young student in a ruined Soviet Resort.
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'this is not an internal Georgian problem, or a question of Georgia and Russia. This is now a question of Russia and the rest of the civilized world.'
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Aug. 6, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - Abkhazian local MADONNA ARGUN, 24, says, 'The subject of Russia is a delicate one for us. We are very grateful for the help Russia has given and see her as a partner and friend. But we won't allow Abkhazia to be annexed. We have sacrificed too much to have gained our independence from Georgia only to lose it again to Russia. It's a very delicate question.'
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Aug. 12, 2014 - Tkvarcheli, Abkhazia, Georgia - Grass blankets the railway tracks in front of Tkvarcheli's once elegant train station. In 2008, Russia blocked the presence of UN troops in Gali.
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Sept. 30, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - A man waves the Abkhazian flag as fireworks explode behind him during Abkhazia's 'Victory Day' celebrations. After more than a decade of international isolation, Russia officially recognized Abkhazia as a nation in 2008. For Georgia, reeling from the Russian invasion of their country just days before, the announcement was unforgivable. All diplomatic ties between Georgia and Russia were cut.
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Sept. 29, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - An old signboard showing the territory of Abkhazia at top left, with Georgia proper at center. As the Soviet Union neared collapse in 1991, Georgia, by then fiercely anti-Soviet, declared its independence. At the same time, the Abkhazian region of Georgia demanded its own independence from Georgia. Georgia at the time was near anarchy and ill-placed to deal with the threat to its integrity. The eventual response sparked a bloody secessionist war, which today lingers on as one of the 'frozen conflicts' of the ex USSR.
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Sept. 25, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - A young Russian tourist at a viewpoint above Lake Ritsa. Mountains make up around 75 percent of the territory, the remainder is the sparkling coastline. But Abkhazia's beauty, as a local poet wrote, 'has only brought her sorrow.'
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Sept. 28, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - Ignoring pleas to slow down, a man raises a toast to God before polishing off his pint of homemade wine. Abkhazia is one of the world's oldest wine producing regions, but international isolation means the exports are almost completely limited to the Russian market.
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Sept. 26, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - A Soviet-era bus stop near Ptsunda. The deliberate limitation on foreign investment has preserved relics such as this from the developers' bulldozer, with some areas of Abkhazia now resembling a kind of Soviet Museum.
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Aug. 9, 2014 - Sukhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia - A soldier, from the Russian city of Smolensk but now based in the Abkhazian town of Gudauta is visited by his family. More than 3,000 Russian soldiers are now stationed inside Abkhazia.
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