Leonid Tibilov, the leader of Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, has announced that areferendum on unification of South Ossetiawith Russia might be held in the next six months.
Tibilov told journalists on April 4 that he reached an agreement during talks last week in Moscow with Vladimir Putin on the creation of "asingle union structure” with Russia, to which South Ossetia woulddelegate itssovereignty.
Tibilov was careful tocreate, as he put it, "political risks for our strategic partner,” by which he hinted to the widespread international condemnation and sanctions that followed Russia’s unrecognized annexation of Crimea two years ago.
At the same April 4 press conference Tibilov stressed that South Ossetia will retain its own armed forces, given that the provision of thebilateral treaty that envisaged subsuming some South Ossetian military units into the Russian Army violates Russian law. He thus specifiedthatthe Ministry of Defence of South Ossetia will be preserved, while South Ossetian military men will be enlisted in the Russian unitsstationed on the territory of the republic.
Georgia and Russia fought a short war over South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia, in 2008. After it ended, Moscow, whose forces triumphed, recognized both regions as independent countries, though most other nations have not.
South Ossetia’s initiative comes at a time when Russia’s ties with the West remain strained over the Ukraine crisis and the Kremlin’s air campaign in Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad against insurgents fighting him.
https://neurope.eu/article/south-ossetia-leader-announces-referendum-joining-russia/
