Alexander Ankvab won the elections of de-facto leader of breakaway republic of Abkhazia in the first round with 55 percent of the votes, "Interfax" quotes Ankvab's electoral headquarters as reporting on Saturday. According to the headquarters, there may be a ten-percent difference between final and official figures.
Military actions were launched in the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia in August 2008. Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia and later Russian troops occupied the city and drove the Georgian military back to Georgia. Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on Aug. 26 and established diplomatic relations with them on Sept. 9, 2008.