Abkhazia was officially added to the Russian Federation, but the remaining population of the "independent republic" is not yet aware of this. When a state occupies another country or a certain part of it, the first thing they do is they annex it, establish effective control and incorporate communications - roads, bridges, television, communications ...

The same thing is happening in Abkhazia. Russia has long had complete control over communications of the occupied region of Georgia, and manages them through the puppet regime of Sergei Bagapsh. Only landline telephone services were left where Russia, until recently, did not have sole monopoly - for technical reasons. However, this "problem" is now solved.

Up until several days ago one could call to Abkhazia using international telephone code of Georgia: +995 (and then city code). For example, in order to call to Sukhumi from abroad, one had to dial +995 122. Within Georgia, communication was performed as normal inter-city service – to call to Sukhumi one was to dial standard 8 , then 122 and after that a phone number.

Now it does not work like this. Today, to call to Abkhazia one should dial +7940 or +7840. It is well known that 7 is the international code of Russia. Thus, in telecommunications, Abkhazia was incorporated into the Russian Federation. Now, some Abkhazians are probably celebrating deliverance from "Georgian phone yoke". It is interesting to know when they will realize that Moscow has just hit another nail into the coffin of their dream of "independent Abkhazia".