In December 2011, Vanuatu appointed Thitam Goiset, president of the Nagriamel and John Frum movements and sister of businessman Dinh Van Than, as ambassador to Russia.

[1] Vanuatu, which became independent from France and the United Kingdom in 1980, was led by Prime Minister Father Walter Lini, founder of the doctrine of Melanesian socialism, from 1980 to 1991.

The agreement lapsed the following year, and was not renewed, due to disagreements over the price to be paid for fishing rights by the USSR.

[citation needed] The year 1991 was marked both by the end of Lini's last term in office and by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

[citation needed] In 2011, however, Vanuatu (under Prime Minister Sato Kilman) did follow Russia's lead in recognising the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia as a sovereign state.