Vladislav Ardzinba

Vladislav Ardzinba (born May 14, 1945) is the president of the Republic of Abkhazia, a de facto independent republic of the Republic of Georgia.

Ardzinba, a historian and former Communist, became involved in the Abkhaz independence movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was a member of the last Soviet parliament from 1989 to 1991.

When Abkhazia declared its independence from Georgia and held its first elections in 1994, Ardzinba was victorious and became the entity's first president. He was re-elected in 1999, although he was the only candidate running for office. The international community does not recognise his presidency, and a referendum on independence that he organized in 1999 was also declared invalid. He has stated that independence from Georgia is not negotiable, and has tried to align the state with Russia. As President, he has met several world leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Boris Yeltsin, the most recent presidents of Russia.

He aroused some further criticism from the international community after issuing a decree banning Jehovah's Witnesses in 1995.

In recent years, Ardzinba has faced criticism for both failing to bring stability to Abkhazia and his increasingly low public profile. He has not appeared in public for more than two years. As a result, the role of governing the state has been increasingly left to Prime Minister Raul Khajimba.

He has been in extremely poor health and has been undergoing treatment in Moscow for some time. Despite increasing calls from the opposition (particularly the Amtsakhara movement) for him to resign, he has stated that he will finish his term, which ends in October 2004. There have also been calls for him to be impeached, but although the Abkhaz Constitution allows for this, the process would likely not be completed before the end of his term. He is unable to run for a third term, due to constitutional restrictions, and it is unlikely that his health would enable him to do so even if this were allowed.

He has not yet announced a preference for a candidate to replace him. It had been suggested that he had favored current Prime Minister Khajimba, but recent speculation has suggested that he may instead support former Prime Minister Gennady Gagulia.