Head of Abkhazian presidential administration dismissed

President of Abkhazia Vladislav Ardzinba signed an order on June 18 to dismiss Gennady Gaguliya from the post of head of the Abkhazian presidential administration. Mr Gaguliya was appointed head of the presidential administration in December 2003. He had been prime minister of Abkhazia for three months before it. He was dismissed by request of veterans of the Georgian-Abkhazian war. "My dismissal is connected with a certain scenario of preparation for the presidential election to be held in autumn and with my attitude to it. I don't blend with this scenario," Gennady Gaguliya said to journalists on June 18. In Mr Gaguliya's opinion, if the democratic election is planned to be held in the republic, the head of the presidential administration should not support any of the presidential candidates. Mr Gaguliya said he himself did not intend to run for the Abkhazian presidency.

Gennady Gaguliya rated demands by the social and political movement Amtsakhara and United Abkhazia about the dismissal of the government as inexpedient. "The matter is not that they don't like the present composition of the Cabinet, they want to get rid of one of the candidates for the post of the president," Mr Gaguliya said.

Editors note: See also the article "New political union created in Abkhazia".