Sochi Agreement Full Text

12. April 2021

The Sochi Agreement (also known as the Dagomys Agreement (Russian:) was a ceasefire agreement, which would have marked the end of the Georgian and Georgian-Abkhaz conflicts signed in Sochi on 24 June. 1992 between Georgia and Russia, the ceasefire with Abkhazia on 27 July 1993. , allowed a moratorium on the use of force, the withdrawal of the warring parties from the war zone within a fortnight, the creation of a Russian-Georgian-Abkhaz control group to monitor the ceasefire, the return of the Abkhaz parliament to Sukhumi, the installation of UN observers in the territory and the resumption of dispute settlement talks. In August of the same year, UNMOT was deployed as a United Nations monitoring force. The ceasefire was violated on 27 September when Abkhazian troops conquered Sukhumi and proclaimed victory. Pro-Georgian forces then withdrew to Tbilisi when Georgia joined the CIS and changed Russia`s attitude towards Georgia on this issue. In 2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Georgian President Shevardnadze and Abkhazian Prime Minister Gennadi Gagulia and launched a Sochi process to establish a Georgian-Russian-Abkhaz working group on confidence-building measures (CBM). The parties have tried to facilitate the return of refugees and economic reconstruction. The Sochi process meant a retreat from multilateralism to a bilateral format that left Georgia alone to face Russia and the Abkhazians. It was also seen that Georgia`s argument that the Geneva process was the only format for a comprehensive settlement of the conflict would be compromised.

[7] In 2004, Russia was considered a violation of the agreement when a Russian company began maintenance work on the Sochi-Sukhumi railway line, which was legally Georgian, although controlled by Russia and the Abkhazians. This measure was considered an offence in which recovery could only be done in parallel with the safe return of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia from the Gali district.