Svetlana Jergenia

Svetlana Iradionovna Dzhergenia (Abkhaz: Светлана Ирадион-иԥҳа Џьергениа; Georgian: სვეტლანა ჯერგენია; born October 1, 1950) is an Abkhaz politician and widow of the first president of Abkhazia, Vladislav Ardzinba.

She was born on October 1, 1950 in Gagra, where from 1957 to 1967 she studied at secondary school No. 4.

From 1967 to 1972, she studied at the history department of the K. Khetagurov North Ossetian State University in Ordzhonikidze, where she graduated with a degree in history, social science and English language teaching, and a specialist in the 19th century Ottoman Empire.

From 1974 to 1977, she studied in graduate school at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the Russian Academy of Sciences), after which, from 1979 to 1989, she worked as a junior research fellow at the Institute of International Economic and Political Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In 2007, she ran as a candidate for deputy of the People's Assembly of the Republic of Abkhazia.

From 2007 to the present, he has been working as a senior research fellow in the political science department of the Abkhaz Institute of Humanitarian Research (AbIHR).

After the death of her husband, the first president of Abkhazia Vladislav Ardzinba, on March 4, 2010, Jergenia began to engage in social and political activities.

At the 2011 Abkhazian presidential election, she was a candidate for vice-president of presidential candidate Raul Khajimba. They ended up with 19.83% of the votes, placing them in third place.

Explaining her decision to run with opposition candidate Khajimba, rather than with Prime Minister Sergei Shamba, who is close to her family, which was negatively received by some of her relatives, Jergenia indicated that she made her choice primarily for political rather than clan reasons, and that it was the opposition that responded correctly and promptly to critical situations in Abkhazia. “I do not forbid anyone to have their own opinion, but I also have that right ”.^[1]