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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Ankvab, friends, colleagues, I am happy to see you in Moscow.

We will soon be marking the fifth anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic relations, so we can draw some conclusions about how Abkhazia is regaining its economic footing and how problems are being resolved – you have more of them than you would like, but I suppose that is true everywhere.

Nevertheless, they need to be resolved, regardless of how difficult they may seem at first glance. I very much hope that today, during these consultations, we will be able to draw some conclusions and examine the challenges we could jointly resolve in the near future.

President of Abkhazia Alexander Ankvab: Thank you, Mr President. Thank you for the opportunity to once again visit Moscow. We were looking forward to this meeting.

I fully agree with you: this August will mark a very important date for us, the fifth anniversary of our independence, of our recognition by Russia. We are preparing for it and we want to approach this date with even better results in our post-war development – I am referring to the fulfilment of a major agreement between us.

We have already done a great deal, and today, we discussed a wide range of issues with my colleagues that will contribute to further improvement of the situation in Abkhazia. I want to express our citizens’ warmest wishes to you; they remember and value your attitude toward Abkhazia. This is very important for our development. Thank you.

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