Vladimir Putin has received 94.1 percent of votes in Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia region, local media has reported.
The de facto Ambassador of Russia in Abkhazia Semyon Grigoriev claimed that in the presidential elections Putin received 20 percent more votes in Abkhazia than in Russia.
Vladimir Putin received 20 percent more votes in Abkhazia than in Russia; candidate of the Communist Party Pavel Grudinin came in second with 2.46 percent of votes, while Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal-Democratic party took third place with 1.56 percent of the vote,” he said.
The Georgian government has strongly condemned the opening of polling stations for the Russian presidential elections in its occupied regions.
The US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly also condemned the move.
Before the elections the de-facto administration of Tskhinvali announced the closure of the crossing-point between the breakaway region and the rest of Georgia due to presidential elections in Russia.
From 9 pm on Saturday until 6 am on Monday, people were temporarily unable to use the crossing-point "due to increased security measures".
The presidential elections were held in Russia yesterday, with Putin receiving 76 percent of votes.