Today in Moscow, Foreign Ministers of Russia and Abkhazia Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shamba have signed the intergovernmental agreement which "creates the legal basis for functioning of diplomatic representative offices of the two countries."

According to Mr Lavrov, Russia will continue helping Abkhazia in bringing its viewpoint to the international community without any "artificial barriers". He also said that Russian and Abkhazian diplomats now need to build the legal basis for their work.

Abkhazia hopes to have further support of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in foreign policy issues, as the ITAR-TASS reports referring to the Abkhazian Foreign Minister. According to his story, "starting from the next year, it is planned to hold permanent consultations with the Russian Foreign Office."