SUKHUM, November 18. /TASS/. Western intelligence services have financed certain non-governmental activists in Abkhazia for years in order to destabilize the situation in the region, the republic’s Justice Minister Anri Bartsits claimed.

"Over the past four years, we have stated that Western intelligence services have funded certain representatives of non-governmental organizations - I stress, certain," the information center at the Abkhaz president's office quoted Bartsits as saying. According to the minister, the goal of this financing campaign was to destabilize the situation in the region, create chaos, and foster "a highly negative image of our country in the international arena."

Comments on opposition protests in Abkhazia from Ukraine and Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili raise the question of whether "we are on the right path at all," Bartsits argued.

On November 15, Abkhazia’s parliament was scheduled to consider ratifying the agreement with Russia on investment projects by Russian legal entities in the republic. The parliament canceled the session because the deputies failed to approve the agenda. The opposition demanded that the parliament be reconvened to remove the issue from the agenda. Later, the opposition called for the resignation of President Aslan Bzhania. He, in turn, vowed to continue his work and urged citizens not to succumb to provocations.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Russia would not interfere in Abkhazia’s internal matters. Moscow expects the situation to be resolved exclusively through peaceful political means, she added. Russian Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev told TASS that Russia supports constitutional principles in the friendly republic. At the same time, he stressed that Russia has never supported overthrows.