Russia will begin supplying electricity to Abkhazia, a separatist Georgian region backed by Moscow, from Monday, Russian news agencies cited local officials as saying.
Power shortages, common in Abkhazia during the winter months, began in early December when low water levels at the Enguri hydroelectric dam required an emergency shutdown.
The region has asked Russia for help, saying it is facing a “humanitarian catastrophe” due to a severe electricity shortage.
“In response to Abkhazia's appeal, the Russian leadership has once again reached out to us and is beginning to carry out a humanitarian transfer of electricity to the republic,” Badra Gunba, the self-proclaimed president of Abkhazia, said on Sunday , quoted by the Interfax news agency.
Outages will be reduced to four hours a day, Abkhazian state energy company Chernomorenergo said, instead of the 9 to 11 hours the region currently faces.
Abkhazia borders the Krasnodar region in southern Russia. The Russian energy ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russian electricity export operator InterRAO declined to comment.
Abkhazia slipped from Georgia's control in a war that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and in which hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians fled the region.
Moscow has long supported it and another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia, and recognized them as independent after winning a five-day war against Georgia in 2008.
