

Women cross into Abkhazia over the Inguri river. Since the 2008 August War, this footbridge is the only way to cross the border.

The former Communist Party headquarters in downtown Sukhumi, destroyed before Abkhaz troops retook the city in 1993.

Men drink coffee and discuss current events at Akop's Place, a waterfront cafe in Sukhumi.

Abkhaz sailors march in a military parade celebrating the 17th anniversary of independence from Georgia on Sept. 30, 2010.

An elderly woman in the town of Dranda casts her vote in the Abkhaz presidential election on Dec. 12, 2009.

An Orthodox priest blesses new domes at the New Athos Monastery on March 27, 2009.

A Turkish ship slams into a sandbank off the Abkhazian coast during a storm on Dec. 14, 2009.

A wine processing line at Wines and Beverages of Abkhazia, the region's leading commercial wine producer, seen on Dec. 11, 2009. The company focuses on the kind of wine most popular in Russia: sweet, young, and generally revolting to Western connoisseurs.

A man looks out at a Russian naval vessel anchored in the Black Sea, near Sukhumi, on Nov. 21.
