Nowhere have differences between the Kremlin and the Moscow Patriarchate caused more difficulties than on the question of the status of Orthodoxy in Abkhazia; and those difficulties are now exacerbating the political divide in Georgia between pro-Moscow and anti-Moscow groups.
When Abkhazia broke away from Georgia, political Moscow supported that action – indeed, it helped make it possible – but religious Moscow in the person of the Moscow Patriarchate has refused to recognize any change in the status of the Orthodox church there and insists that the Abkhaz Orthodox remains subordinate to the Georgian Orthodox Church.
The Georgian Orthodox........