The government of the Republic of Abkhazia, which considers itself independent from Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

, issues its own vehicle registration plate

Vehicle registration plate

A vehicle registration plate is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identification purposes. The registration identifier is a numeric or alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the vehicle within the issuing region's database...

s for the motor vehicle

Motor vehicle

A motor vehicle or road vehicle is a self-propelled wheeled vehicle that does not operate on rails, such as trains or trolleys. The vehicle propulsion is provided by an engine or motor, usually by an internal combustion engine, or an electric motor, or some combination of the two, such as hybrid...

s registered in the territory it controls. The design of the plates is based on that of Russian license plates, but Abkhazian plates lack the regional coding of Russian plates and substitute the flag of Abkhazia

Flag of Abkhazia

There are currently two entities claiming to be the government of Abkhazia, the partially recognised Republic of Abkhazia and the pro-Georgia Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia.-Republic of Abkhazia:...

 and the code "ABH" for the flag of Russia

Flag of Russia

The flag of Russia is a tricolour flag of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant and war ships and only became official in 1896...

 and the code "RUS".

The license plate serial format consists a letter followed by three numbers and then two more letters. The letters are Cyrillic

Cyrillic alphabet

The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...

, but only thirteen letters reminiscent of letters of the Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

 are used: А, Б, В, Е, К, М, Н, О, Р, С, Т, У, and Х.

In the territory controlled by the government of Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 (before 2008), the Georgian license plates

Vehicle registration plates of Georgia (country)

Vehicle registration plates of Georgia are composed of an embossed serial of three letters, a hyphen and three numbers , in black on a white background. The plates are issued in the Latin alphabet. Georgian license plates are the same size as the most common European license plate...

 were issued. Since 2004, cars with Georgian plates prohibited in Abkhazia, as are Abkhazian plates in mainland Georgia. Cross-border travel is therefore only possible with Russian, Armenian

Vehicle registration plates of Armenia

Vehicle registration plates of Armenia have black characters on a rectangular white background. They are composed of two or three numbers, two letters in the middle, and two other numbers...

, or Azeri

Vehicle registration plates of Azerbaijan

Vehicle registration plates of Azerbaijan are usually composed of two numbers, a hyphen, two letters, a hyphen and three numbers , the plates are coloured black font on a white background...

plates.