18 Abkhaz celebrate on their "independence day" in 2014. Since the war, Abkhazia has been shunned by the international community. But in 2008, shortly after the Russia-Georgia war, Russia formally recognized Abkhazia. Then-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili responded that Abkhazia is "not an internal Georgian problem, or a question of Georgia and Russia. This is now a question of Russia and the rest of the civilized world."