South Ossetian authorities want to rename the self-proclaimed republic in response to actions by neighboring Caucasian people in a dispute over the region's history. Some in South Ossetia also hope the renaming will help speed up accession to the Russian Federation.

In November, the de facto President of South Ossetia, Leonid Tibilov, announced the formation of a political council to decide on the issue of renaming the republic to Alania in honor of the state of the same name that existed in the Caucasus in the Middle Ages.

South Ossetia, it would seem, has more pressing problems. Agriculture, traditionally the mainstay of the region's economy, has declined, and most residents work in government agencies and are paid by the budget of the region's patron, Russia. South Ossetia's population, officially estimated at 50,000, is isolated and cut off from Georgia - of which most of the world still sees South Ossetia as part of - by a growing border fence.

But for now they forgot about all this, because... Public attention turned to the conflict between the Ossetians and several neighboring peoples over which of them has the right to call themselves the true descendants of Alania, a state that existed in the region in the 8th-13th centuries. At the peak of its power in the 10th century, Alania controlled most of the North Caucasus and was “the first and only indigenously organized political entity in the North Caucasus before the Mongol invasion,” wrote historian Viktor Shnirelman, “and therefore the Alan identity gives the owner the prestige of being the bearer of a higher culture and "civilizer".

Context

Moscow tightens its grip on South Ossetia

Le Figaro 04/07/2016

On the border of South Ossetia five years after the war

Le Monde 10/29/2013

5 years ago the Five-Day War occurred in South Ossetia

InoSMI 08/08/2013

Georgia is outraged by barbed wire in South Ossetia

BBC Russian Service 05/29/2013 This prestige explains the desire of many North Caucasian peoples to consider themselves successors to the Alan heritage. The most active claim to Alan origin is the Ossetians, who are now divided into two entities - North Ossetia within Russia and South Ossetia, considered by most countries of the world to be part of Georgia. North Ossetia was renamed North Ossetia-Alania in 1994. On the territory of both Ossetias, many supermarkets, hotels, dance ensembles, etc. are named after Alania.

Other peoples of the North Caucasus, in particular the Chechens and Karachais, also made attempts to connect their history with Alania. But the most aggressive competitors of the Ossetians for the Alan heritage are the Ingush. The Republic of Ingushetia, located east of North Ossetia, founded a new capital in 1995, calling it Magas, part of the capital of ancient Alania. And last year, the authorities of Ingushetia erected a ceremonial arch “Alan Gate” at the entrance to Magas.

The reaction of both Ossetias was not long in coming. “Naturally, this event could not go unnoticed in Ossetia. Knowing full well that the action is political, but not historical, much less scientific, it is nevertheless probably worth commenting on it, said the first president of South Ossetia, Ludwig Chibirov, in an interview with a North Ossetian newspaper. “Unfortunately, the rewriting, alteration of historical facts “to suit one’s own needs,” imperativeness and aggressive, offensive amateurism are gaining ever faster pace, as it turns out, not only in published publications, but also in this building.”

A week after the opening of the arch, the de facto President of South Ossetia, Leonid Tibilov, proposed renaming this self-proclaimed republic. “Many peoples would like to alter their own history and appropriate someone else’s history. “In South Ossetia they were surprised that the Alan Gate was built in Ingushetia, since the whole world knows that Ossetians are the descendants of the Scythians and Alans, and we will not allow anyone to appropriate our history,” he said.

Tibilov also hinted that the renaming would help the process of unification of the two Ossetias. “The historical moment will come when the two parts of Ossetia will be reunited, and a united Ossetia will again become part of the Russian Federation,” he said.

Russia has provided financial and military assistance to South Ossetia since the latter's separation from Georgia after the civil war in 1991-1992. As a result of the second war with Georgia in 2008, Russia recognized South Ossetia as an independent state and hinted at the possibility of its joining the Russian Federation.

In February, Tibilov announced a referendum on joining Russia in 2016, but then announced that it would be postponed indefinitely. Unlike Crimea, which was annexed by Russia with great fanfare in 2014, Moscow treats the possibility of South Ossetia joining the Russian Federation with much more caution. In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he had discussed this issue with Tibilov, but Moscow was not yet “considering” this possibility. Meanwhile, Georgia continues to consider South Ossetia part of its territory.

Although the integration process in the Russian Federation has stalled, the issue of renaming is still on the agenda. It is not yet clear what the new name of the republic will be. The council is considering several options, including South Ossetia-Alania, the Republic of Alania, simply Alania, etc. All of these options are expected to be put to a vote in a referendum, a government source told EurasiaNet.org on condition of anonymity. According to the same source, the date of the referendum has not yet been determined.

The public supports the idea of ​​renaming, but there is no agreement on the new name. Some residents support the option of South Alania and the removal of the word “Ossetia” from the name, believing that it comes from the Georgian name for this people. Others suggest calling the country Iryston, because This is exactly what the republic is called in the Ossetian language.

“I support renaming the republic to Alania. To be honest, I even find it difficult to answer whether there are opponents of this process. I don’t know anyone like that,” Vyacheslav Dzhabiev, an economist in the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, told EurasiaNet.org. “The main thing for me is that the word “Ossetia” is not removed from the title. That is, not the Republic of South Alania, but the Republic of South Ossetia-Alania.”

But not everyone shares this point of view. “I’m against renaming because, first of all, you can’t rename an entire country in response to someone’s wrong actions,” local political scientist Dina Alborova told EurasiaNet.org. “Secondly, we have too many other problems that require financial costs. After all, renaming the republic will involve large expenses: changing official documents, reprinting textbooks, passports, etc.” But if the renaming does happen, she is in favor of another option. “There is already Alanya in the north,” Alborova noted. — If we talk about renaming, then let them change the name to Iryston, Ir. Because we always called our country Ir, Iryston, and we called ourselves Iron, not Alan!”

The authorities of South Ossetia are trying to rename it Alania, playing on pro-Russian sentiments, although the territory of the republic was not included in the historical borders of Alania, Caucasian experts told the Caucasian Knot. They believe that the direct descendants of the Alans are the Ossetians, and they called the claims to the Alan heritage by Ingush and Chechen researchers unfounded.

As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, on December 28, 2015, the President of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov proposed renaming it Alania. In November 2016, the Tibilov administration announced numerous appeals from local residents in support of this idea. A referendum on the issue of renaming South Ossetia to the State of Alania is scheduled for April 9 and will take place on the same day as the presidential elections.

About the borders of ancient Alanya

Caucasian experts and historians interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent agreed that the historical borders of Alania ran through the modern territories of southern Russia, without affecting South Ossetia.

The historical settlement area of ​​the Alans was in the Central Caucasus, modern Karachay-Cherkessia and North Ossetia, where “ancient temples and other evidence of the presence of the Alans have been preserved,” a senior researcher at the Center for Caucasus Problems at MGIMO told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent Akhmet Yarlykapov .

Associate Professor, Higher School of Economics Andrey Vinogradov in turn, described the borders of historical Alania as follows: “they ran through the south of the Krasnodar Territory, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, the south of Stavropol, North Ossetia and, probably, part of Ingushetia.”

However, it is impossible to accurately depict the real borders of historical Alanya, says the head of the department of peoples of the Caucasus at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at Moscow State University Sergey Arutyunov .

“In the work “Ossetians” (B. Kaloev, Nauka, 2004) there are more or less reliable maps of historical Alania. No one drew a real map that would have been created at the time when Alania existed, and the boundaries are drawn according to archaeological data. Some the northern border is drawn along the Don River, and there are reasons for this. During the periods of greatest expansion, the Alans controlled part of the territory in the Don River basin. "Don" is the word for river in the modern Ossetian language and, of course, in both Scythian and in the Alanian languages, the river generally sounded like “don,” Arutyunov explained to the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

According to Akhmet Yarlykapov, the initiative to rename South Ossetia to Alania is connected with the hopes of the republic’s leaders to become part of Russia.

“I think that I would like to unify the name of the two Ossetian republics and thus once again emphasize that this is actually one republic, one people, and they should be part of Russia. I’m not sure that Russia is delighted with this idea, and I'm not sure that there are direct instructions from Moscow. Rather, these are internal hopes, and the mood is known: the majority of the population would like to be part of the Russian Federation," the scientist stated.

Andrey Vinogradov, in turn, linked this initiative with an attempt to reformat the borders of historical Alanya.

“I don’t go deep into South Ossetian politics, but the obvious goal seems to me to be the desire to identify this territory as belonging to the Alans since ancient times, which is not confirmed by sources. Moreover, South Ossetian researchers who worked on this issue, for example, Togoshvili, directly say that Ossetians appear on the territory of modern South Ossetia no earlier than the 13th century,” Vinogradov noted.

March 5, Vladikavkaz youth went to a rally against the initiative to rename Ingushetia . This happened after and the Change.org platform published a petition from a resident of St. Petersburg, Alikhan Tsoroev, with a call to “Rename the current Republic of Ingushetia to the Republic of Alania,” which has currently collected 2,018 signatures. The authorities of Ingushetia and North Ossetia stated that there is no talk of renaming. The head of North Ossetia, Vyacheslav Bitarov, demanded to find the organizers of the rally, while he himself was present at the rally - according to the official version, in order to prevent escalation.

The main evidence that the ethnic group belongs to the Alans is the language

Historical science as a whole quite clearly classifies the Ossetians as the descendants of the Alans, Caucasian experts believe.

“Assumptions that the Ossetians are descendants of the Alans are based on the language. This is an Eastern Iranian language, and the Alans were Iranian-speaking. Therefore, the Ossetians are their direct descendants,” said Akhmet Yarlykapov.

At the same time, according to him, there remains a lot of controversy around this issue, and “there are a lot of other assumptions.”

Andrei Vinogradov classified the South Ossetians as “settlers from the North Caucasus to the territory of Georgia,” where they arrived “at the invitation of the Georgian kings in the 13th century, after the Mongol invasion.”

“As for the North Ossetians, they are getting closer to the Alans primarily in language, because they have preserved the Iranian Alan language,” he confirmed.

This can be judged, in particular, from the Zelenchukskaya Inscription (10th century) and from the notes in one manuscript, which is kept in St. Petersburg.

“As for religion, some Ossetians retained Christianity, and some converted to Islam, like other Caucasian peoples. As for anthropology and genetics, the Ossetians are the same descendants of Alans as the Balkars and Karachais,” he told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent. Vinogradov.

The issue of the language spoken by the Alans remains debatable, emphasized Sergei Arutyunov.

“Of course, it is indisputable that the largest part of the Alans spoke the language of the Eastern Iranian group, although this is not the east, but rather the north-west in relation to Iran, and these languages ​​are related to the current Ossetian. They are widespread in the east of the Iranian area, in This language is spoken by the Pamir peoples, the Yagnobis in Tajikistan; it is also an ancient Scythian language. They were spoken by the Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans and modern Ossetians. It can be considered that the modern Ossetian language, the Iron and Digor dialects are closest to these languages ​​of the ancient peoples, although not absolutely identical, because over time languages ​​changed and broke up into dialects,” explained Arutyunov.

The scientist also admits that some Alans spoke the Turkic language.

"Some argue that the Scythians mainly spoke Turkic, but this is an exaggeration, but some could speak, this is quite possible. Very often the significance of this is exaggerated. Turkic scientists who themselves speak Turkic, especially Balkar, Karachai scientists in the Caucasus, tend to attribute the Alans mainly to the Turks,” the researcher noted.

After the publication of a petition to rename Ingushetia to Alaniaanother message has appeared on the Change.org platform petition – with a demand to rename the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania to the Republic of Alania. “It’s time to throw off this alien name – “Ossetians” and find our true name – “Alans”. Attempts to rename Ossetia to Alania have been made since 1992, but we must become the generation that will complete this holy work and put an end to historical misunderstandings,” - written by the author petitions , which has currently collected 6,337 signatures.

The Ingush became one of the many heirs of the Alan culture

Culturally, the Ingush certainly inherited the customs of the Alans, says Sergei Arutyunov.

“The Ingush, to some extent, preserve the cultural heritage of the Alans today. Yes, culturally, all the peoples of the North Caucasus have, in one way or another, inherited something from the Alans,” he said.

At the same time, according to him, the peoples of Western Europe inherited no less.

“In France, 30 cities have the root “Alan” in their names, the largest is Alençon. The word “Catalonia” contains the name of the Goths and Alans. The Alan presence was also in North Africa. There are scientists who see the Alan heritage along with the Celtic one in "the legend of the Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur, and this is not fantasy, this is serious scientific research. The Alans left their mark not only in the Caucasus, where their immediate descendants are the Ossetians," the researcher emphasized.

According to Arutyunov, the name “Republic of North Ossetia-Alania” is “not speculation, but a real reflection of a historical fact.” After the defeat of “Great Alania” by the Mongols, the only surviving fragment of it was preserved in North Ossetia, he explained.

“In addition, the Alans were also known under the name “Assy” or “Yassy”. In ancient Russian sources you will find only the word “Yassy, ​​Yasynya”, meaning, of course, the Alans. And “Yassag” is the region inhabited by the Alans, until is still available in Hungary, although no one remembers the language there,” he noted.

Arutyunov clarified that in the late Middle Ages, a language close to Ossetian was still heard among part of the Hungarian population.

“And I would say that the entire European, knightly tradition of weapons and customs largely go back to the Alan military traditions,” he added.

As for the peoples inhabiting the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, for example, the Abkhazians still have such a piece of the Alan heritage as the Nart epic.

“These are more likely fairy tales than epics. But the fact that the Nart epic was one of the pillars of Alan culture is undeniable. The Circassians and Kabardians have preserved it to a lesser extent; even the Chechens have it in part. The North Caucasus is very the territory is diverse in terms of languages, but the culture in general is national variations of a very common, powerful culture, which largely continues the Alan path,” Arutyunov explained.

The claim to the Alan heritage for any region is a matter of involvement in great history, says Andrei Vinogradov.

"The Alans were one of the most powerful peoples in the North Caucasus in the Middle Ages, and their name is a sign of prestige, since they had a cultural impact on all the peoples of the North Caucasus, including thanks to the Nart epic, which was adopted not only by the Alan peoples of the North Caucasus" , noted the researcher.

During their thousand-year residence in the North Caucasus, he continued, the Alans inevitably included part of the Nakh tribes: Chechens, Ingush, Kists.

“They conquered them, and they had a Nakh component. We know that on the territory of Ingushetia there are burials attributed to the Alans, although material culture is not always associated with ethnic identity,” noted Andrei Vinogradov.

He believes that the actions of the Ingush leadership reveal a desire to claim the prestigious name of Alans, as happened “with the construction of the new city of Magas, at a time when the location of ancient Magas is unknown.”

Modern Magas built from 1996 to 1998. By decision of the first president of the republic Ruslana Ausheva the city on the site of the capital of medieval Alanya was built specifically to become instead Nazran is the new capital of Ingushetia.

The language and architecture of the Ingush have no direct connection with the Alans

The Ingush, according to Sergei Arutyunov, can hardly lay claim to the Alan heritage in the North Caucasus.

“The Ingush speak one of the Nakh-Dagestan languages, and these languages ​​are spoken by the indigenous peoples of Dagestan, in addition to the Kumyks and Nogais, Chechens and Ingush. Obviously, the Urartu-Khurik languages ​​are related to them, and cuneiform inscriptions remain on it. Again, the degree The closeness of Chechen and Urartian is very often exaggerated for political purposes, but there is undoubtedly a closeness, a kinship. However, this is a completely different group of languages, with a different system, ideology, with a different system of thinking reflected in the language," Arutyunov said.

The historian calls attempts to interpret the Alan inscriptions in one of the Nakh languages ​​“pseudo-scientific”.

“There are some Chechen scientists who are trying to interpret the few inscriptions that have come down to us from the Alan language as inscriptions in one of the Nakh languages ​​or a language close to Nakh. However, this has no scientific basis,” he emphasized.

Despite the fragmentary nature of these inscriptions, there is no doubt that they were written in a language close to modern Ossetian and thus belonging to the Eastern Iranian group of languages, Arutyunov is sure.

“Serious linguists don’t do this. And here, rather, we are talking about pseudo-scientific authors trying to substantiate political speculations with linguistic data. So, say, with which languages ​​the Sumerian language has not been linked, but these are not scientific, but pseudo-scientific speculations,” concluded Sergei Arutyunov.

Architectural evidence also speaks of a different, non-Alan origin of the temples on the territory of modern Ingushetia, says Andrei Vinogradov.

“The Alans absorbed part of the Nakh population, and on the territory of Ingushetia there are Alan burial grounds. However, if we even look at Christianity on the territory of Ingushetia, it is not at all the same as that of the Alans, who adopted it from Byzantium through Abkhazia, but of a completely different type, that is especially evident in the architecture that came from the territory of Georgia,” Vinogradov said.

Let us recall that the Georgian authorities have already opposed the renaming of South Ossetia, regarding the holding of a referendum in the republic as an attack on the state sovereignty of Georgia.

In South Ossetia, on Sunday, April 9, presidential elections were held, which were combined with a referendum on renaming the republic. If the name change is a beautiful symbol, then the fight for the presidency turned out to be real.

The speaker of the local parliament, leader of the United Ossetia party, Anatoly Bibilov (57.98%) won the presidential elections. The current head of state Leonid Tibilov is twice as inferior to him (30%). Moreover, the exit poll data published immediately after the end of the voting indicated that the incumbent president had won. The third candidate, State Security Committee (KGB) employee Alan Gagloev, gains 11.01%. 5.7% voted against all three candidates, the turnout exceeded 80%.

To win in the first round of elections, a candidate needs to get more than 50% of the votes, so Bibilov announced his victory that night. “We have all the protocols in our hands; according to our headquarters, our absolute victory is 54.9%. There will be no second round,” Bibilov said at night, before the publication of the final voting results.

According to the Constitution, the inauguration of the elected president must take place 10 days after the election results are published in the media.

Previously, Bibilov attracted attention when in January 2015, on the eve of the signing of a new alliance treaty with Russia, he proposed that South Ossetia become part of Russia. Usually, South Ossetian politicians speak quite carefully on this topic, if only because it is very painful for Moscow.

So if the new president of South Ossetia actively advocates the integration of the republic into Russia, this could become a problem for official Moscow - clearly the inclusion of a new region into Russia is not included in the Kremlin’s immediate plans.

Also on Sunday, more than 78% of voters were in favor of renaming the Republic of South Ossetia to the State of Alania. Now, after making appropriate changes to the country’s constitution, the country will officially be called the “Republic of South Ossetia - State of Alania.”

The story of the referendum on renaming is quite interesting. On the one hand, it can be considered that by adopting a new name, South Ossetia wants to become closer to North Ossetia, which added the word “Alania” to its name in 1994, during the adoption of the current constitution.

But, of course, the reason for the Ossetians’ love for the name Alania has much deeper roots. The Alans are an Iranian-speaking people who created their state in the North Caucasus at the beginning of the 1st millennium - it was one of the first states in the region, it was finally destroyed during the Mongol invasion. For South Ossetia, succession from the Alans is also important because ancient Alania naturally had a long history of relations with Georgia, and they were often equal partners.

However, several more nations lay claim to the right to be considered the heirs of the Alans - Karachais, Balkars and Ingush. The new capital of Ingushetia, which began to be built in the mid-1990s, was even named Magas, in honor of the ancient capital of the Alans. So the desire of the Ossetians to “stake out” the ancient name for themselves is understandable and, moreover, is bearing fruit; now it is difficult to find supporters of the version that the successors of the Alans are the Ingush or Balkars.

Tskhinvali, February 21 – Sputnik, Maria Kotaeva. Historians and politicians of South Ossetia discussed the upcoming referendum on renaming the republic. Politicians considered the decision of the head of the republic and the renaming option proposed by Leonid Tibilov to be correct. The academic community did not agree with the wording of the referendum question and considered it incorrect to combine the referendum and presidential elections.

On February 7, Leonid Tibilov signed a decree calling for a referendum, which will be held on the same day as the presidential elections - April 9. Citizens are invited to vote for amendments to Part 1 of Article 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Ossetia, stating it in the following wording: “The Republic of South Ossetia - the State of Alania is a sovereign democratic legal state created as a result of self-determination of the people of the Republic of South Ossetia. The names Republic of South Ossetia and the State of Alania are equivalent.” .

The head of the Department of History of Ossetia and Caucasian Studies of South Ossetian State University, Professor Yuri Gagloti questioned the appropriateness of the word “state” in the new name of the republic.

“The word state confuses me, and I don’t understand who the author of this project is. As far as I know, there were three options for renaming the name of our republic and the word “state” did not appear in any of them. For us, it is more logical to rename the Republic of South Ossetia - Alania. We already have a precedent in the north. On the map this is the territory of one ethnic group. And if in the future we unite with North Ossetia, then there should be one name," Gagloti said.

The head of the IR media center, a teacher at the Department of History of South Ossetian State University, Irina Gagloeva, called the presidential decree on renaming the republic unprepared and opposed combining elections and a referendum.

“I doubt that the option “state of Alania” was chosen as one that suits the majority of the inhabitants of our republic. Holding a referendum and presidential elections on the same day is considered a measure of saving budget finances, but we are put in a framework when we are forced to vote and a forced vote with this wording the issue of renaming may affect the results of the referendum,” Gagloeva said.

Deputy head of the presidential administration Kosta Pukhaev supported the presidential decree on renaming the republic and said that “the name of the state of Alania will restore the historical rights of the Ossetians.”

He noted that the very idea of ​​holding a referendum had already attracted a reaction from the Karachay-Cherkess Republican Public Organization "Congress of the Karachay People", which expressed their disagreement in a letter addressed to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“No one can dictate to us what we should call our republic and encroach on facts proven by historians,” Pukhaev said.

The presidential decree was also supported by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia Murat Dzhioev, the judge of the Constitutional Court Alan Dzhioev and the rector of South Ossetia State University Vadim Tedeev.

“The equal use of the “state of Alania” along with the Republic of South Ossetia fully meets the aspirations of the Ossetian people. Leonid Kharitonovich mentioned this name back in November 2015. Since then, expert councils have been held more than once, at which this issue, among others, was discussed. I am convinced that this is the right option,” said the head of the South Ossetian Foreign Ministry.

Professor of the Department of Philological Sciences of South Ossetia State University Zoya Bitarova believes that adding the “state of Alania” to the name of the Republic of South Ossetia will strengthen the historical reality and added that the issue of renaming South Ossetia to Alania first appeared in the 90s, during the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, but “ “At that time it was not a priority due to the difficult situation.”

Former member of parliament, head of the department of Ossetian language and general linguistics at South Ossetian State University Yuri Dzitsoyty called holding a referendum on the day of the presidential election “undemocratic.”

“The holding of a referendum should not be tied to the presidential elections. This does not exist in any state, and goes against the norms of democracy. The parliament or the president must take responsibility for postponing the referendum to another date,” Dzizzoity said.

Director of the Museum of North Ossetian Treasures, Mikhail Mamiev, said that “pulling the Alan blanket” in the Caucasus is a special project behind which are certain individuals interested in fomenting destabilization in the North Caucasus.

“In world history, the question of identifying Alans and Ossetians has not been raised for a long time, and the ethnogenesis of the Alan people does not require confirmation for the neighbors of the Ossetians. It is clear who is behind the Alan legacy project, which is aimed at inciting interethnic destabilization in the Caucasus,” Mamiev said.

According to preliminary data, Bibilov, who won the presidential elections in South Ossetia, announced the people’s desire to return to the Russian Federation.

According to preliminary data, Speaker of the South Ossetian Parliament Anatoly Bibilov wins the first round of the presidential election. As stated by the head of the Central Election Commission of the republic, Bella Plieva, referring to the preliminary results of the Central Election Commission, according to preliminary data, Bibilov is gaining 57.98%, the current president Leonid Tibilov is 30%, Alan Gagloev is 11.01%. A total of 77 polling stations were opened, five of them in Russia. The overall turnout was 81%. To win, a candidate must receive more than 50% of the votes.

In addition to the election of the head of the republic, a referendum was also held on renaming the republic. According to Bella Plieva, giving South Ossetia the equivalent name “State of Alania” was supported by 78% of voters. The final results of the referendum will be announced within five days.

Despite the fact that between the leaders of the presidential race, the Speaker of the Parliament of South Ossetia Anatoly Bibilov and the current head of the republic Leonid Tibilov there was no fundamental political difference, but some intrigue still remained, the president of the Foundation for the Unity of the Russian and Georgian Peoples is sure Vladimir Khomeriki. According to the Bell of Russia’s interlocutor, during the short history of independence, the republic’s leaders change quite often, all this suggests that the majority of its residents are dissatisfied with the isolating international situation.

“If you do not compare status, temperament and character, as well as minor differences in political views, there is practically no fundamental difference between Bibilov and Tibilov. Moreover, Ossetian society is for the most part united and fully oriented towards integration with Russia. Therefore, the Ossetian people will continue to choose a leader who will be completely focused on the Russian Federation,” the expert explained.

New President Anatoly Bibilov assured that relations with the Russian Federation cannot undergo any changes for the worse. On the contrary, we will increase them. According to him, “the agreement that we signed with the Russian Federation, of course, will be implemented and integration into the Russian Federation will proceed.”

The only thing that can change in the republic after the elections is
renewal of the personnel of the country's leadership, believes the coordinator of the working group of the Center for the Study of Central Asia and the Caucasus of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Skakov. According to the expert, those personnel who were under Tibilov largely inherited from the former president Eduard Kokoity, apparently, will be replaced, and this is only good, because you cannot stay in power for too long.

“The political leadership of the republic has a very close relationship with Moscow, where there are no fundamental contradictions. Moreover, today in the republic there is no longer such a thing as clanism, which just a few years ago were actively fighting among themselves. The past elections and referendum betrayed a more distinct structure of statehood. Previously, there was tension between the Russian Federation and the republic related to the misuse of subsidized funds that the Russian Federation allocated to South Ossetia, but today the corruption component has been minimized as much as possible,” the expert noted.

“The referendum on renaming South Ossetia to the Republic of Alania is a more significant political event in the history of the republic than the presidential elections. The renaming will be the next step in rapprochement in order to prepare a motivational platform for reunification with the Russian Federation and will move us even further away from Georgia. Today, the ground is gradually being prepared for the unification of the same-rooted brothers - the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and the Republic of South Ossetia-Alania, so we can finally put an end to the issue of returning the republic to Georgia. Renaming will only strengthen the motivation of the population to join the Russian Federation,” explained the publication’s interlocutor.

In turn, as Anatoly Bibilov, the leader in the presidential elections in the republic, told RIA Novosti, Tskhinvali will continue to discuss with Moscow the prospects of holding a referendum on South Ossetia’s accession to Russia.

Bibilov spoke about this referendum earlier as speaker of parliament. According to him, “there is a certain agreement between him and President Tibilov, which requires careful consultation with Russian colleagues, because this directly concerns Russia.” Bibilov noted that Russian law allows this, but still depends on the current international situation.

As for the position of Georgian society, there is also complete unity regarding the territorial integrity of the country, and all ongoing elections and referendums will never be recognized even with the slightest reservations. According to David Purtskhvanidze, the Georgian side will try to throw information at the international community. through Geneva or some other format. However, this will not move the territorial conflict forward due to the principled position of Tbilisi, which does not want to conduct a direct dialogue with the authorities of the republics it does not recognize, but only limits itself to protest statements.

“The chances of resolving the territorial dispute through various forms a few years ago were quite real, in particular using the confederation scheme, but the Ossetians and Abkhazians lost faith in international negotiation platforms, which turned into a regular farce, with considerable financial costs. Over the course of several years, about 40 meetings were held in the Geneva format, on which about $5 million was spent, with zero results from such meetings,” the expert explained.

Integration between Russia and South Ossetia is in full swing. Thus, the majority of residents of South Ossetia are Russian citizens, have the appropriate rights, and there are programs to increase salaries and pensions to the level of the Russian Federation. Formerly President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin instructed the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, after reaching an agreement with South Ossetia, to sign an agreement on the inclusion of individual units of the country's armed forces in the RF Armed Forces.

But whether the idea of ​​the republic joining the Russian Federation is relevant for the Russian leadership remains a big question.

Anatoly Molchanov

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