Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a government proposal to bankroll the modernization of the armed forces in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, a government document published online showed on Monday.

Georgia lost control of the Black Sea region of Abkhazia after an inter-ethnic conflict which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia is one of only a handful of countries to recognize Abkhazia's independence, something it decided to do in 2008 after it won a short war against Georgia over the fate of another Georgian breakaway region.