The Abkhazian authorities officially approved the design of the
external passport of the Republic of Abkhazia, RIA Novosti reports,
citing Abkhaz Vice-President Alexander Ankvab, supervisor of external
passport development.
"The Abkhazian external passport has a high level of protection, it
consists of 36 pages, with a blue cover. The pages are numbered, with
an Abkhazian emblem and watermarks on every page. We used the Bank of Sukhumi's Lake Rits for our watermarks, elements of old Abkhazian
ornaments, both visible and invisible", - Ankvab noted. The prime-cost
of the passport shouldn't exceed 3 dollars.
Ankvab said that the passport design was discussed at a meeting held
by Abkhaz President Sergey Bagapsh, with the participation of parliamentarians and Nugzar Ashuba, the speaker of parliament. Bagapsh
noted that having Abkhazian external passports meeting international
standards will solve the problem of crossing the Russian-Abkhazian
border. Bagapsh didn't exclude the possibility of issuing passports in
June.
Abkhazian citizens without Russian citizenship or Russian external
passports do not have the right to cross the Russian-Abkhazian border.
Abkhazia has it's own internal passports.
