The South Ossetian authorities have promised to start the distribution of new passports to the country’s citizens on May 17. Only current residents of South Ossetia will have the right to become South Ossetian citizens, while all those who reside elsewhere, North Ossetia included, will not be granted citizenship. According to experts, these conditions set by the current government on the threshold of national elections are aimed against the opposition.
The government claims that such measures must be taken, as the distribution of new passports coincides with a general census of the population, and it is necessary to know how many people actually live in South Ossetia. And the easiest and most accurate way to know that is by counting newly-issued passports. Of course, those who planned to return to South Ossetia as permanent residents later are now at a grave disadvantage.
Those who planned to oppose Kokoity during future elections and who now reside abroad will be now deprived of the right to exercise any legal political activity within South Ossetia. For example, Dzambolat Tadeev is considered to be the most popular of Kokoity’s opponents; however, he lives in Russia, so now he won’t be able to change his passport. A group of opposition figures who have Vladikavkaz as their base are now also deprived of their political ambitions. According to opposition activists, Kokoity wouldn’t have taken such a decision without the Kremlin’s support, so they hope to persuade Moscow officials, who are de facto in charge of Ossetian politics, to reconsider. If all Ossetian people who don’t reside in the South Ossetian Republic now are cut off from its citizenship, the very concept of national independence would be undermined. The newly formed Republic needs qualified specialists, no matter where they live. And it’s just a 3 hour trip from Vladikavkaz to South Ossetia. Kokoity himself once said that a united Ossetia is the dream of each and every Ossetian.
Opposition leaders hope that Russia is not interested in Kokoity’s third presidential term. Kokoity is trying to hold on to power by any means, and that might prove fatal for the young Ossetian society.
Oleg Kushati, exclusively to VK
