Georgia’s separatist-controlled region of Abkhazia has strongly rejected views of its annexation by Russia, insisting that its autonomy from Moscow is not subject to debate, according to Politico.

In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of the unrecognized South Caucasus state on Thursday, officials said that while it is a staunch ally of the Russian Federation, its self-proclaimed state is not subject to debate.

The comments come shortly after the vice chairman of the Kremlin’s Security Council, former president Dmitry Medvedev, hinted that Moscow could seek to absorb the two breakaway regions of neighboring Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Yet despite the presence of thousands of Moscow troops deployed in Abkhazia in the wake of a series of wars with Georgian government forces, as recently as 2008, officials in the capital said the proposal was little more than a sign of an intensifying geopolitical dispute.

Meanwhile, the secretary of Abkhazia’s security council, Sergei Saba, went further, pointing out that there are no political entities in the region pushing for integration with Russia.

He went on to say that they have not received any formal request to join the Russian Federation and he has yet to identify any political faction within Abkhazia that envisions such a dynamic relationship with Russia.

Home to around a quarter of a million people and with its own distinct language, Abkhazia is a de facto independent state from Georgia following the violent civil war that followed the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Hundreds of thousands of Georgians have been displaced from the region, which borders Russia, as part of a campaign by the separatists, who have often been backed by elements of the Russian Armed Forces.

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