Over the weekend, two friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin were involved in auto accidents: Moldovan President Igor Dodon, who was injured in a traffic accident just hours after Prime Minister of Abkhazia Gennady Gaguliya was killed in an automobile accident on September 8.
Dodon, 43, an ally of President Putin's, has led the former Soviet Republic since December 2016.
Video captured the moment of impact.
The BBC reported:
Moldovan President Igor Dodon has been injured in a traffic accident north-west of the capital Chisinau.
A lorry overtook a vehicle in wet weather near the town of Straseni and crashed into the presidential convoy.One of the cars in the convoy overturned. President Dodon was taken to hospital but suffered only scratches and bruises, officials say.
Pictures posted on social media after Sunday's accident show the wreckage of a car by the side of the road.
https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1038763855491620865
- Liveuamap
The accident occurred mere hours after Gaguliya died in a traffic accident on Saturday evening.
The official Russian news agency TASS reported on that accident:
Prime Minister of Abkhazia Gennady Gaguliya died in a traffic accident on Saturday evening, press secretary of the republican government Diana Zantariya told TASS.The traffic accident occurred near the Myussera militia post, she said. According to information available, the driver and security guards of the prime minister were not injured.
The accident occurred at about 23.00 Moscow time at the Psou – Sukhum motorway, the Abkhazia’s Cabinet of Ministers said on its website.
“The car with the prime minister was in the cortege of the official delegation of Abkhazia returning from the Syrian Arab Republic. According to preliminary data, nobody was injured as a result of the accident,” the statement says.
Gaguliya was appointed to the office of the prime minister in April 2018. He was the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic before the appointment.
Some have questioned the timing of these accidents and have speculated that both may have been assassination attempts.
In a report on DFWatch.net:
Abkhazia’s de facto president Raul Khajimba excludes a notion of assassination.“The Abkhazian delegation was returning after a state visit to Syria… I myself was in the convoy and witnessed an accident. This is an accident, not a terrorist attack,” Raul Khajimba was quoted by Russia’s Interfax as saying.
The delegation of the breakaway Abkhazia held a state visit to Damascus where it met President Bashar Assad and other leaders of Syria. In May, Syria recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
And so the plot thickens despite the claims of Khajimba.