Russia wants separatist Abkhazia and the South Ossetia to be less reliant on Moscow's finances, according to Russian Deputy Economy Minister Dmitry Volvach.
A Russian government official said that the objective is to diminish Sukhumi and Tskhinvali's reliance on Russian help within the next three years.
"For example, Russia's portion of co-financing salary hikes for public sector employees in the republics will progressively decline – from 85% in 2022 to 15% by 2025," Volvach stated.
"The first stage of support, when we could only provide money there and create infrastructure," he explained, "has already concluded," adding that "we got everything we could obtain from this stage in terms of economic growth."
According to Volvach, the aid has raised the percentage of regional budgetary income — from 41.5% to 52% in separatist Abkhazia and from 7% to 18% in Tskhinvali.
Moscow, according to a Russian official, will assist in the creation of legislation and regulatory frameworks in this regard, as well as support them by subsidising interest on loans for specified agriculture, tourist, and industrial projects.
In the interview, Volvach also mentioned that Abkhazia's GDP is USD 270 million), while Russia's assistance for 2021 is above USD 42.2 million.
