The Signing of Russian-South Ossetian Agreement is Moved on March 18

• 03.13.2015, 13:40
•  EEU,  Region,  World

The signing of the Treaty on Alliance and Integration between the Russian Federation and South Ossetia, to which Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his formal approval, last week has been postponed indefinitely. According to the media reports, the reason of the postponement became the illness of the President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Presidents Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that the so-called agreement on Alliance will be signed after the talks, which will hold on March 18.

Meanwhile, the South Ossetian Parliament is planning a vote of no confidence in de facto Foreign Minister David Sanakoyev for various "blunders," including having leaked the amended text of the treaty to the press two months ago, Radio Liberty reports.

As it was the case with Abkhazia, the draft treaty triggered heated disagreements within the South Ossetian leadership over the optimum degree of rapprochement and cooperation between the two polities. Parliament speaker Anatoly Bibilov, whose Yedinaya Osetiya (One Ossetia) party controls 20 seats in the 34 parliament elected in June 2014, advocated a far closer degree of "integration" with Russia than de facto President Leonid Tibilov and other political parties were apparently prepared to condone. In January 2014, Bibilov called for a referendum on South Ossetia’s incorporation into the Russian Federation to be held concurrently with the parliamentary ballot.

The fourth and final version of the treaty provides for closer cooperation between the armed forces and security structures of the two polities but does not stipulate as a long-term goal the referendum on South Ossetia’s incorporation into the Russian Federation that Bibilov demanded, and that featured in the initial draft. 

Though there are various assumptions circulating in media concerning the postponement of the signing, it is obvious that there will not be a turndown in the Russian politics towards South Ossetia. The agreement with South Ossettia in comparison with Abkhazian one, has more integration content, as Russia expected. Moreover, at this moment there is not any serious process of normalizing relations between Russia and Georgia, in which the agreement could play a role of leverage.