Qualitative Data: Interviews and Primary Sources

The field research for this thesis was conducted for four months in the summer of 2017 and autumn of 2018 covering Abkhazia, Georgia and Russia. The rationale of the fieldwork in the three regions was twofold. First, fieldwork in the parent, patron and de facto state enables a closer engagement with primary sources and facilitates the identification of central actors and processes in the regions of interest. In that sense, fieldwork encourages researchers to get a feeling for the studied regions and to observe aspects that would otherwise get lost in desktop research, such as the experience of crossing the de facto border between Georgia and Abkhazia and the lack of international companies in the de facto state. Second, the fieldwork enabled the collection of data, secondary sources and primary sources in form of interviews, agreements, written accounts and photographs. Indeed, I collected the predominant share of qualitative data points for this study during my field research in Abkhazia, Georgia and Russia. These rich data points shed light on the ways in which the Abkhaz de facto government pursued state and institution building and offer insights into the extent and ways in which Russia has shaped Abkhazia’s state and institution building processes.

However, data collection in fieldwork settings comes with a set of limitations and ethical considerations that can shape the research outcomes (see e.g. Cronin- Furman & Lake (2018) for an overview of ethical and practical implications of fieldwork activities in areas of state weakness and conflict). Yemelianova’s (2015) analysis of the prevalent theoretical and methodological approaches of Western English-language scholarship on de facto states, for instance, uncovers a set of

122 distinctive challenges that may affect the quality of conducted research. According to her, many researchers not only approached the post-Soviet de facto state conflicts from a Russia-centric perspective, but also “often lacked the in-depth knowledge and necessary linguistic skills to deal with ethno-political conflicts and processes in non- Russian parts of the former Soviet Union” (Yemelianova 2015: 65). Furthermore, she finds that

[t]horough field work on de facto states has been relatively limited, with the bulk of it based on short- term visits there and interviews with capital based English or Russian-speaking policy-makers and academics as well as journalistic reports. As a result, data have sometimes been less than comprehensive, which has inevitably affected the validity of at least some of the conclusions reached (Yemelianova 2015: 65).

Even though I was aware of these limitations while planning my fieldwork, it was difficult to avoid falling into similar methodological traps during the fieldwork in Abkhazia and Georgia. Not only did I conduct my research interviews predominantly in English and Russian rather than Georgian or Abkhaz, I also conducted most of my field research in the capital cities of Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia. It is therefore necessary to account for the limitations of the interview data in terms of generalisability and coverage. Moreover, there are a variety of limitations to interview research in general and in conflict or post-conflict contexts in particular. Especially in geographically small regions or regions with small populations, where only a limited number of people are willing to be interviewed, it is likely that the findings of the interviews drive the research of a number of researchers simultaneously. I noticed, for instance, that I had previously read some of the interview results of my interviews in other research studies. Therefore, it is important to approach potential interviewees beyond those interview subjects that were referred to you by other researchers. Furthermore, field researchers should attempt to come up with questions that differ from previous studies in order to produce new research insights.

123 Interview data constitutes a significant portion of the qualitative data points of the cases studies. Semi-structured interviews have the advantage of flexibility in terms of what interviewees want to say in their own way (Carruthers 1990) and they allow the researcher to adapt the interview to the situation (Kajornboon 2005). The interview data of this thesis is the result of in-country field research in the de facto Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia and the Russian Federation, specifically in Sukhumi, the de facto capital of Abkhazia, Tbilisi, Saint Petersburg and Moscow. I interviewed a variety of stakeholders of the Abkhaz government including ministers and politicians. In addition, I interviewed previous members of the Abkhaz government and bureaucracy that experienced the state and institution building process of Abkhazia in the post-Soviet period of the 1990s first-hand, but moved on to work for international donors or NGOs in Sukhumi. Moreover, I interviewed international donors, NGOs, political analysts and researchers secondary to the state building process that regularly interacted with Abkhaz officials in some form. Thus, the interviews in Abkhazia were primarily selected to represent both an external and internal perspective on state building in Abkhazia and to offer insights into the interviewees’ experiences on the ground during the state building developments. These interviews uncover how and why the Abkhaz de facto government took certain decisions, what state and institution building measures it prioritised and how the authorities were influences by Russia.

Despite attempts to interview representatives from the Russian government, it was only possible to interview scholars that had expertise in Russo-Abkhaz relations, that previously visited Abkhazia or worked directly with Russian officials. Therefore, Russian motivations behind their engagement in Abkhazia can only be assessed through second-hand information, which certainly presents a limitation of the interview results. Still, the interviews with Georgian, Abkhaz and Russian officials offered insights into the actions of Russian representatives on the ground and their policy prioritisations in Abkhazia. This information does not provide conclusive evidence on patron motivations, but uncovers the practical implications of patron engagement. The interviews with Abkhaz government officials, for instance, revealed that Russian engagement discourages Abkhaz self-sufficiency.

124 I developed an interview guide for the semi-structured interviews that focused on a set of core questions (Bogner et al. 2009) covering five topics: domestic state building developments, the role of limited international recognition, the involvement of external actors, Russian engagement in Abkhazia and Abkhazia’s education sector. The interviews lasted between 30 to 120 minutes. Four of the 18 interviews were conducted in Russian without a translator and transcribed by a Russian transcription service. The remaining interviews were conducted in English and transcribed by a transcription service in London. With the exception of five interviews, all interviews were audio recorded. In one instance, I was not allowed to bring electronic equipment with me and in the other four cases the interview setting did not lend itself to recording the interview.

The interviews are numbered consecutively to preserve the anonymity of the interviewees, but three interviewees agreed to having their names and/or professional titles used. For the sake of transparency, I indicate which findings derive from which interviewee. The interview data was cross-referenced with secondary or alternative primary findings. If it was not possible to cross-reference the interview data, the thesis clearly states that a specific finding was ‘alleged’ or ‘argued’ by one of the interviewees. The complete list of interviews is summarised in the table below (table 11).

125 Table 11 Interview Information

Interview Description Location Year

1 Georgian scholar Tbilisi, Georgia 2017

2 Two representatives of an international donor Tbilisi, Georgia 2017

3 Former Georgian diplomat Tbilisi, Georgia 2017

4 Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia

Tbilisi, Georgia 2017 5 Representative of an international organisation Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017 6 Representative of an international organisation Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017 7 Viacheslav Chirikba: former Minister of

Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia

Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017 8 Adgur Kakoba: current Minister of Education

of the Republic of Abkhazia

Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017 9 Government representative of the Republic of

Abkhazia Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017 10 Representative of an international organisation Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017 11 Representative of a non-governmental organisation Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017 12 Representative of an international organisation Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017 13 Representative of a non-governmental organisation Sukhumi, Abkhazia 2017

14 Russian scholar Saint Petersburg,

Russia

2018

15 Abkhaz scholar Saint Petersburg,

Russia

2018

16 Russian scholar Moscow, Russia 2018

17 American scholar Moscow, Russia 2018

18 Russian scholar Moscow, Russia 2018

In addition to the interviews, the data analysed in this thesis includes legal documents, such as treaties and agreements between the Russian Federation and the de facto Republic of Abkhazia from 2008 onwards. Especially the 2014 agreement offered detailed insights into Russian state building support for Abkhazia (see chapter 7). Furthermore, I obtained primary sources on Abkhazia’s state building development in the Russian National Library in Moscow. These sources include exchanges between the Abkhaz, Russian and Georgian governments in the 1990s, statements and legal acts of the Abkhaz de facto authorities, photos of Abkhazia in the Soviet and post-Soviet period, as well as UN status reports assessing the situation in Abkhazia in the 1990s. The visual data of this thesis was either sourced from photo

126 albums from the Russian National Library or was produced by myself during my field research. The interviews, primary sources and photographs create a rich set of data points that enable a vivid representation of state building developments in Abkhazia. The photographic evidence in the thesis serves two dominant purposes for the analysis of the case studies. First, the photographs visually demonstrate the presence of state, governance and education infrastructure and institutions in Abkhazia’s Soviet and post-Soviet period. The photographic evidence thereby illustrates the potential for institutional path dependence in the post-Soviet period and the ability of Abkhaz rebel groups to utilise the foundations of the pre-existing institutional structure for their state and institution building endeavours (see figures 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 25, 26, 27 and 28). Relatedly, some pictures depict cultural norms surrounding teaching settings and school uniforms in Abkhazia during the Soviet period. Some of these norms outlived the Soviet period and reflect a continuation of cultural norms in Abkhazia’s post-Soviet period outlined in the qualitative findings of chapter 8 (see figures 19, 21, 24 and 29). Second, some photographs vividly capture the war and post-war devastation in Abkhazia that exemplify the domestic state and institution building hurdles of the de facto regime. The pictures thereby also serve as an explanation why Russian state building support to Abkhazia focused predominantly on infrastructural assistance (see figures 22 and 23).