 Afterwards he became a senior official in Russia's emergencies ministry.In April 2004 he emerged as one of the leaders of a new political movement named United Abkhazia (Yedinaya Abkhazia, reminiscent of the Russian pro-Kremlin party Yedinaya Rossiya).He was not eligible to run in the October 2004 presidential election in Abkhazia because of a requirement that candidates must have been resident in Abkhazia for five years.