On December 4, at the meeting of Abkhazia’s so-called energy security headquarters, the so-called acting prime minister, Valery Bganba, warned the population about the introduction of a special regime. Abkhazia is not receiving enough energy due to the low water level in the Enguri HPP reservoir. The so-called authorities had to purchase much more electricity from Russia, which turned out to be insufficient. After Russia imposed sanctions and cut off funding, the so-called Abkhazian authorities plunged the population into a deep energy and financial crisis.

The so-called minister of finance, Vladimir Delba, explained that the energy sector required a lot of resources, but without Russian funding it would be quite difficult to overcome the energy crisis. On December 11, Chernomorenergo published a new electricity supply schedule, based on which, from December 11, the population of Abkhazia will get electricity only for 2 hours and 48 minutes during the day, while from 21:00 to 07:00, electricity supply will continue in the usual mode.

The so-called authorities of Abkhazia decided to close schools and kindergartens for a week as a result of the energy crisis, said the so-called acting prime minister Valeri Bganba. The so-called ministry of education explained that the holiday period would last from December 11 to 17. In addition, the so-called energy security headquarters asked internet providers to shut down the internet for seven hours on December 10 to combat illegal cryptocurrency mining.

In addition to the energy crisis, Abkhazia is facing a serious financial crisis. The so-called minister of finance, Vladimir Delba, said that due to the funding cutoff in November, Abkhazia will not receive 1.8 billion rubles ($17.8 million) in aid.

“We cannot receive funds to ensure the financing of budget expenditures - for defence, law enforcement agencies, respectively, for the purchase of medicines and, of course, financial support for budget investments, such as the investment programme and business support. Thus, by the end of the year we will not receive 1 billion 800 million rubles of Russian financial assistance,” Delba said.

The so-called acting president, Badra Gunba, said that without the financial support from Russia, Abkhazia would find it quite difficult to maintain financial stability. He noted that since November the Russian side had practically stopped co-financing in all areas, except for pensions.