Abkhazian blogger Daur Buava has been found dead in an apartment in Tbilisi on Thursday night, with the cause of his death currently unknown. Buava was an outspoken proponent of dialogue between Georgians and Abkhazians.

The Interior Ministry told OC Media that initial reports indicate there were no signs of violence on Buava’s body. An investigation has been launched under article 115 of the criminal code, which concerns incitement to suicide. The authorities often investigate deaths with no immediate explanations as to their circumstances under that clause.

Neighbours told TV Pirveli that he had last been seen several days earlier, and that emergency services and police were called to the building after residents noticed an unbearable smell.

The news of Buava’s death prompted an outpouring of grief on Georgian social media.

Tamta Mikeladze, head of the Centre for Social Justice, said she knew Buava and described the news as ‘very difficult’.

‘Daur had a great desire and energy to start a new life’, Mikeladze wrote on social media. She said the investigation should provide the public with timely information about what happened and establish the cause of death in detail.

‘I share the grief of his family members and friends’, she wrote.

Buava, who was 26, moved to Tbilisi from Tkvarcheli (Tkuarchal) in 2021 and had not returned to Abkhazia. He obtained Georgian citizenship under a simplified procedure in December 2022.

His death comes after years of public advocacy for Georgian–Abkhazian dialogue. Buava had used TikTok to promote friendship between Georgians and Abkhazians and to argue for their coexistence, positions that led Abkhazia’s security service to accuse him of ‘treason’ in 2022.

Buava had been posting videos on TikTok since 2020 under the name Tarielovich, calling on people in the Caucasus to live in peace and friendship.

In one of his earlier interviews, he said an argument with a Georgian TikTok user over the status of Abkhazia prompted him to promise that he would visit Tbilisi.

‘Adult Georgians and Abkhazians argue with each other on social networks like children. They insult each other, threaten each other’, Buava said.

His interlocutor did not believe he would come, but Buava travelled to Zugdidi the following day and posted his first video from the other side of the Enguri (Engur) River.

‘I only had ₾400 ($150) in my pocket’, Buava said. ‘I stayed in the hostel in Zugdidi, I had dinner, had a shower and headed to Tbilisi next day. I did not plan all of this, it happened spontaneously. My arrival in Tbilisi was a matter of principle’.

After arriving in Tbilisi, Buava met the TikTok user in a bar. He later recalled that the man raised a toast to Abkhazians who had died during the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993), before drinking to the memory of Georgians.

‘With this warm gesture, I saw this person in a different light’, Buava said. ‘The man who was arguing with Abkhazians online all the time was now drinking a toast to the memory of the Abkhazians who died in the war’.

In May 2022, Abkhazia’s security service opened a criminal case against Buava on charges of ‘treason’, alleging that his TikTok posts served ‘the propagandist purposes of the Georgian government’.

The agency also claimed that Buava was wanted on drug-related charges.

Buava rejected the accusations and said that relatives living in Abkhazia had been summoned for interrogation and that their houses had been searched.

After moving to Tbilisi, Buava founded the youth movement Amra — meaning ‘sun’ in Abkhaz — together with Georgian friends Shmagi Samkharedze and Mikheil Kvatashidze.

The group sought to foster dialogue between young people on both sides of the Enguri River through podcasts, videos, and discussions about Georgian–Abkhazian friendship and the possibility of living together.

Born in Tkvarcheli Buava said his generation had grown up without knowledge of life before the War in Abkhazia. At the time, he said he had no plans to return to Abkhazia because he feared he would be arrested or killed.

‘Government officials must do everything for those young people who see our future together’, Buava said. ‘We have a full right to unify, because we are brothers and sisters and we have a common, long-standing history’.

For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.