Valery Arshba

Valery Arshba was the first Vice President of the Republic of Abkhazia. He was first elected to the office on 5 January 1995, under President Vladislav Ardzinba, and the pair was re-elected in the 1999 Presidential election where they ran unopposed. Arshba initially was a candidate in the October 2004 Abkhazian presidential election, but he withdrew just before the start of the campaign period due to pressure from his family. During the post-election crisis that followed, Arshba supported opposition candidate Sergei Bagapsh, and when the latter eventually became President following a power-sharing agreement with his rival Raul Khajimba and new elections in January 2005, Valery Arshba was made head of the presidential administration of Abkhazia on 15 February 2005.