Life in a breakaway region
Across the border from Russia’s Olympic city of Sochi lies Abkhazia, a disputed region in the northwest of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
The area still bears the scars of heavy fighting which took place there in the 1990s, when Abkhazia broke with Georgian government control following the collapse of the USSR.
A rusty gate opens onto a meadow near the town of Ochamchira, some 50 km (31 miles) southeast of Abkhazia's capital.
Boys play soccer in a dusty schoolyard in the town of Gal.
A local resident named Vitaliy Benia rests on a bench at an abandoned railway station in Tkvarcheli, in the south of the disputed region.
A vendor waits for customers at her market stall in the Abkhaz capital.
A woman sits at her stall at a market in the town of Tkvarcheli.
A rooster lies on sale at the market.
A boy rides a bicycle past a partly crumbling building in Tkvarcheli.
A woman stands on a pier in Sukhumi’s harbour.
Residents relax in the sun by the Black Sea.
A man goes fishing in Sukhumi harbour.
The word "Caucasus" – the volatile region that encompasses Abkhazia – appears smudged and faded on the side of an abandoned boat.
A girl rides a swing in Tkvarcheli.
