Raul Jumkovich Khajimba (Abkhaz: Рауль Џьумка-иԥа Ҳаџьымба, Georgian: რაულ ჯუმკას-ძე ჰაჯიმბა; born 21 March 1959) is an Abkhazian politician who served as President of Abkhazia from 25 September 2014 until 12 January 2020.
[1] After a bomb attack on 13 December 1999 in Sukhumi targeting government officials, President Ardzinba dismissed Astamur Tarba as Security Service chairman and appointed Khajimba in his stead.
Early in the morning of that day, nine prisoners had escaped, four of which had been sentenced to death due to their involvement in the 2001 Kodori crisis.
As then-President Vladislav Ardzinba was seriously ill and did not appear in public during his term, Khajimba acted as a de facto head of state in his absence.
He has been a sharp opponent of reunification with Georgia, and vehemently condemned Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's proposal for a two-state federation in May 2004.
However, opposition candidate Sergei Bagapsh polled more votes on election day, in what was widely attributed as a backlash against the strong Russian influence in his campaign.
Ardzinba soon dismissed Khadjimba as Prime Minister, replacing him with a compromise candidate, Nodar Khashba, and two months of drawn-out disputes followed, involving public protests, court action and parliamentary proceedings.
However, in the aftermath of the election win, many analysts have suggested that Khadjimba's executive authority would be somewhat limited under the new arrangement, with Bagapsh and his Prime Minister, Alexander Ankvab, likely to maintain ultimate control over the areas of policy nominally assigned to the vice-president.
The congress issued a statement criticizing the Bagapsh administration's "multi-vector foreign policy", referring to the talks with Georgian and Western diplomats, and called for greater ties with Russia.
The alliance would have combined Ardzinba's backing by part of the business community and his financial resources with Khajimba's electoral popularity.
The pair said they would run together during two meetings with voters, and the idea was that they would receive the joint nomination by the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia.
The congress of the Forum of the National Unity of Abkhazia planned on 29 October was called off, and Ardzinba was instead nominated by an initiative group that day.
Provisions of the agreement included placing the Abkhazian military under the direct control of Russia's armed forces and committing Abkhazia toward bringing its trade laws into alignment with the Eurasian Economic Union.
The treaty was widely condemned in the West and by the Republic of Georgia, with US newspaper The New York Times suggesting the Abkhazian government had no choice but to agree to Putin's terms.
However, Khajimba hailed closer ties with Russia as promoting "the full scope of guarantees for the safety of our state and extensive opportunities for the social and economic development".