Now, telephone calls to Abkhazia are made entirely by means of Russian area codes.

Back on September 28, 2009, Russia and Abkhazia signed a memorandum, according to which Russia delivered its codes of fixed and cellular telephony to this breakaway republic, and on November 15 Abkhazia received its code "840" for fixed and "940" - for mobile telephones.

For six weeks the republic used the Russian code in parallel with the Georgian one in the testing mode, and starting 2010, the republic is completely using only Russian codes, as the "Interfax" writes.

Nugzar Pipiya, Minister of Economy in the Abkhazian government in exile (alternative government supported by the authorities of Georgia), said in his comments on Abkhazia's switchover to Russian telephone codes, that "this fact, same as Russia's recognition of Abkhazia's independence, is against all generally recognized legal rules and international agreements," as reported by the Expert's Club.