Raul Khajimba

Raul Jumkovich Khajimba (Рауль Џьумка-иԥа Ҳаџьымба, რაულ ჯუმკას-ძე ჰაჯიმბა; born 21 March 1958) is an Abkhazian politician, and served as President of Abkhazia from 25 September 2014 until 12 January 2020.

Raul Khajimba was born on 21 March 1958 in Tkvarcheli, where he went to school and worked as a mechanic at the power station.

From 1976 until 1978, he served in the Soviet Air Defence Forces.

From 1979 until 1984, he graduated from the Law Faculty of the Abkhazian State University.

From 1985 until 1986 Khajimba studied at the KGB school in Minsk, and he subsequently served as a KGB agent in Tkvarcheli until 1992.

During the 1992–1993 war with Georgia, Khajimba was the head of the military intelligence and counterintelligence operation on the eastern front.

For his work, he was awarded the Order of Leon.

From 1996 until 1998, Khajimba headed the anti-smuggling division of the State Customs Committee.

In 1998, he became its deputy chairman.

After a bomb attack on 13 December 1999 in Sukhumi targeting government officials, President Ardzinba dismissed Astamur Tarba as Security Service chairman and appointed Khajimba in his stead.

On 18 June 2001, he additionally became First Vice Premier.

On 1 November he was succeeded as Head of the State Security Service by Interior Minister Zurab Agumava.

Early in the morning of that day, nine prisoners had escaped, four of which had been sentenced to death due to their involvement in the 2001 Kodori crisis.

President Ardzinba initially refused to accept Gagulia's resignation, but was forced to agree on 8 April.

Vice President Valery Arshba denied on 8 April that the government's resignation was due to the prison escape, and stated that instead it was caused by the opposition's plans to hold protest rallies on 10 April.

On 16 May 2002, Khajimba was appointed Defence Minister, replacing Vladimir Mikanba, while remaining First Vice Premier.

In the evening of 7 April 2003, Prime Minister Gennadi Gagulia filed for resignation.

On 22 April 2003, Raul Khajimba was appointed the new Prime Minister.

He unsuccessfully ran for president in 2004, 2009 and 2011.

He remained Prime Minister until October 2004.

As then-President Vladislav Ardzinba was seriously ill and did not appear in public during his term, Khajimba acted as a de facto head of state in his absence.

In this role, he met a number of political leaders, including Igor Ivanov, foreign minister of Russia.

He has been a sharp opponent of reunification with Georgia, and vehemently condemned Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's proposal for a two-state federation in May 2004.

Khadjimba was tipped as the favourite to win the October 2004 presidential elections, and was strongly endorsed by both outgoing president Ardzinba and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Both men campaigned on his behalf and dedicated significant resources to assisting the Khadjimba campaign.

However, opposition candidate Sergei Bagapsh polled more votes on election day, in what was widely attributed as a backlash against the strong Russian influence in his campaign.

After the election, both Bagapsh and Khadjimba claimed victory, with Khadjimba alleging that electoral fraud in the pro-Bagapsh Gali region had been responsible for Bagapsh's win.

Ardzinba soon dismissed Khadjimba as Prime Minister, replacing him with a compromise candidate, Nodar Khashba, and two months of drawn-out disputes followed, involving public protests, court action and parliamentary proceedings.

In December 2004, Khadjimba and Bagapsh came to an agreement which would see the pair run as part of a national unity ticket in repeat elections, with Khadjimba running as Bagapsh's vice-president.

As part of this deal, the position of vice-president was given expanded powers covering defence and foreign affairs.

Khajimba previously held the offices of Vice President (2005–2009), Prime Minister (2003–2004) and Defence Minister (2002–2003).

The joint ticket easily won the January 2005 election, winning more than 90% of the vote.

However, in the aftermath of the election win, many analysts have suggested that Khadjimba's executive authority would be somewhat limited under the new arrangement, with Bagapsh and his Prime Minister, Alexander Ankvab, likely to maintain ultimate control over the areas of policy nominally assigned to the vice-president.

The controversy resurfaced again in June 2008, when Khadjimba attended a congress of the Aruaa veteran organisation, of which he is a member.

The congress issued a statement criticizing the Bagapsh administration's "multi-vector foreign policy", referring to the talks with Georgian and Western diplomats, and called for greater ties with Russia.

The pro-Bagapsh politicians from the Amtsakhara veteran organisation described Khadjimba's criticism of the government, in which he was a vice-president, "immoral".

Later that month, Khadjimba reiterated his stance towards Bagapsh's foreign policy, stating that Abkhazia's only protector could be Russia and using force would be inevitable for gaining control of the upper Kodori Valley in northeastern Abkhazia, the only part of Abkhazia under Georgian control at the time.

In August 2008, the Abkhazian military did take the upper Kodory Valley by force during the August 2008 war over South Ossetia.

He was also Chairman of the Forum for the National Unity of Abkhazia from 2010 to 2015.

He resigned the presidency in 2020 due to protests against him.