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Revision as of 07:29, 22 July 2004 by Vanished user 5zariu3jisj0j4irj (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Sergei Bagapsh (born 1949) was the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Abkhazia (a de facto independent republic of Georgia) from 27 April 1997 to June 2001.
Before being appointed as Prime Minister, Bagapsh had been a businessman, a former first secretary of the Abkhaz Komsomol and a permanent representative of the Abkhaz leadership in Moscow, Russia.
Bagapsh led Abkhazia at a time when there was a very real danger of renewed conflict with Georgia. He also led the entity while its President, Vladislav Ardzinba, was still able to govern effectively, so Bagapsh had much less power than some of his successors. Former Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze once claimed that Bagapsh never passed any resolution without Ardzinba.
The Georgian-Abkhaz tensions during Bagapsh's rule came to a height in May, 1998, when the Tbilisi-based government-in-exile deployed forces along the Abkhaz-Georgian border. In the resulting conflict, which was colloquially named the "Six Day War", 30,000 Georgian refugees fled across the border to the town of Zugdidi. 1,695 houses occupied by Georgians were also burned down.
Bagapsh currently occupies the position of energy minister. On July 20, 2004, the two main opposition movements, Amtsakhara and United Abkhazia, named him as their joint candidate for the October presidential elections, beating out other hopefuls, such as former foreign minister Sergey Shamba.
Preceded by: Gennady Gagulia | Prime Ministers of Abkhazia | Followed by: Vyacheslav Tsugba |