The visit of the President of the Republic of South Ossetia Anatoly Bibilov to Moscow and the results of his talks with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the last steps of South Ossetia both within and outside the framework of this visit can be called, with good reason, a new level of development of the South Ossetian-Russian relations and South Ossetia as a whole.
The basis for this conclusion is, in particular, the scale of the problems that faced both the Republic as a whole and individual category of citizens, the decision of which was announced following the visit.
Thanks to the achieved successes, the visit had a wide responsein South Ossetia. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RSO Dmitry Medоev said: "The visit was held at the highest level, this concerns not only the protocol support, but, first of all, I mean the substantive part of the meetings. It was a success to remove the questions that had been waiting for their resolution for many years. The dialogue of the leaders has become an indicator of the level of relationships that have been achieved in a short time. The signed documents have replenished a solid legal base of bilateral relations. This process is currently ongoing. "
After this visit in the life of the Republic many events are associated with the epithet "for the first time." Let`s consider the decisions that will have a beneficial effect on the further realization of the rights and legitimate interests of a large number of citizens of South Ossetia.
The first is the issue of accounting forlength of service of peacekeepers who served in the North Ossetian battalion of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces to maintain peace and law and order from 1992 to 2008 in the former zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict.
For many years the retired Ossetian peacekeepers did not receive a pension on the pretext that the peacekeeping battalion was "the North Ossetian", and the current Russian legislation does not provide for the functioning of armed units of the regions of the Russian Federation. However, at the same time, it was ignored the fact that in the event of a contradiction between the national legislation and the international treaty, it will have force the provisions of the international treaty, in this case the entire complex of the treaties related to the peacekeeping process in the former zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict,. As a result, people who for years served with a risk to life, protecting peace and quiet of the residents in the front-line zone, were left with nothing when retiring.
Thanks to the principled position and goodwill of the leaders of South Ossetia and Russia, this problem for the first time has moved from a dead center.
"The matter for today is that the peacekeepers' service in South Ossetia should be taken into account, and Russia should grant pensions to them. This is the most important social guarantee, which every serviceman who served in the peacekeeping forces needs, "said Anatoly Bibilov at a press conference dedicated to the results of the official visit to the Russian Federation.
He has also said that Vladimir Putin gave direct instructions on this issue, which have already been accepted for execution today.
The second problem is important and painful not onlymetaphorically, but literally. According to the population census of South Ossetia in 2015, out of 48.1 thousand citizens of the Republic, 43.9 thousand are also citizens of the Russian Federation. This is approximately 91% of the population. To receive medical assistance in the territory of Russia, they had to submit, in addition to the passport, a document on registration in the territory of the Russian Federation. And Russian citizens who do not have registration in the country of their citizenship could count only on paid medical care.
To facilitate obtaining medical assistance by this category of our compatriots, the Ministers of Health of Russia and South Ossetia Veronika Skvortsova and Georgy Totchiev signed the "Agreement on the obligatory medical insurance system covering the citizens of Russia living in South Ossetia." It concerns just those Russian citizens who also have South Ossetian citizenship, but do not have official registration in the territory of the Russian Federation and permanently reside in South Ossetia. In accordance with the Agreement, they will be issued policies of obligatory medical insurance for the provision of medical assistance in the medical institutions of the Russian Federation.
In addition, Vladimir Putin instructed to resolve the issue of the transfer of helicopter with medical equipment to South Ossetia. The helicopter is necessary for emergency evacuation of people from South Ossetia to Russian medical institutions in case of need, when due to unfavorable weather conditions the Transcaucasian highway is closed in the cold season.
In fact, this will mean that South Ossetia will have its own aviation for the first time. Though, so far, it will be only the sanitary one. But this is a transition to a new, higher level of development of our Republic. To maintain the helicopter, we need specialists, highly qualified personnel, and a high-tech infrastructure.
Innovations are also expected in the issue of recognizing the diplomas of educational institutions of South Ossetia by Russia. The South Ossetian side has already carried out all the necessary procedures, after which the Foreign Ministry of South Ossetia sent a corresponding notification to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
After the response from the Russian Federation on the relevant measures, the Agreement between the Governments of the Republic of South Ossetia and the Russian Federation on mutual recognition of education and qualifications signed on April 12, 2017 will come into force.
The work to strengthen the South Ossetian-Russian relations was carried out not only within the framework of the visit and not only in Moscow. This work is carried out in all directions.
For example, this year for the first time the director of the Republican National Library named after Anaharsis Valeria Kokoev took part in the annual meeting of the heads of federal and central regional libraries of Russia in the St. Petersburg National Library. She made a presentation at the round table "Problems and prospects of the libraries of the proclaimed republics of the post-Soviet space and their cooperation with the library community of the Russian Federation". The organizers of the event are the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Russian National and the Russian State Library.
The visit to Russia was also successful in the field of international relations of the Republic of South Ossetia. First of all, this concerns the friendly island state of Nauru.
In Moscow, the first meeting was held between the President of South Ossetia Anatoly Bibilov and the President of Nauru Baron Divavesi Vaka. Baron Divavesi Vaca is a Nauruan musician and composer, a long-time member of parliament, before being elected president he worked as a minister of public works and a minister of education.
The heads of state discussed ways of further cooperation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia, at the direction of Anatoly Bibilov, has already sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Finance of the Republic of Nauru with a request to accredit a citizen of the Republic of South Ossetia and New Zealand, Taymuraz Bitiev, as a representative of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of South Ossetia under the Foreign Ministry of Nauru.
President of Nauru, for his part, assured that his country is proud of its friendship with South Ossetia and, without looking back at possible consequences, will promote and protect the interests of South Ossetia in every way, striving to expand South Ossetia's international relations with the countries of the region and other states with which Nauru maintains friendly relations.
At the public level, the work is under way to develop traditionally friendly relations between the Ossetian and Bulgarian peoples. Just these days in South Ossetia, Bulgarian folk tales have been published for the first time in history in Bulgarian and Ossetian languages. The book is intended for middle school students and serves to promote Bulgarian oral folklore among students, the development of friendly relations between the peoples of South Ossetia and Bulgaria. The composition of the book is also original. It can be read from two sides - on the one side it is a book of fairy tales in Bulgarian, on the other side - the same tales in the Ossetian language.
The name of Lieutenant-General Sergei Khabalov, a participant of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, is also associated with Bulgaria, which in Bulgaria is called the Liberation War. The hero cavalry sword was presented to Anatoly Bibilov by Vladimir Putin that was also a manifestation of hospitality and cordiality, demonstrated by the Russian side to the leadership of South Ossetia. This indicates a high level of respect and trust of the Russian leadership to our country and our people as a whole.
"We value this friendship very much and appreciate highly the warmrelations of our leaders and our countries that have already become traditional," said Foreign Minister of the RSO Dmitry Medoev.
Unfortunately, Georgia's response to these and other peaceful steps of the South Ossetian and Russian politicians were hostile rhetoric and the shooting. In October were recorded two cases of shelling of border markers from the Georgian village of Tsitelubani.
As we see, further deepening of cooperation between Georgia and NATO is already a real threat to regional security. This was earlier stated by the Russian Foreign Ministry. It would be a mistake if Georgia imagine South Ossetia as weak and defenseless as it was in 1991.
"South Ossetia is an important partner and ally of Russia," Vladimir Putin said. South Ossetia and Russia have agreed to coordinate more closely the steps to counter the challenges and threats to security in the South Caucasus, and also to continue the closest interaction in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.
Of course, the proper level of economic development of South Ossetia is of no small importance for the successful accomplishment of this task. Russia is the main foreign trade partner of South Ossetia. The bilateral trade turnover for January-September, 2017 increased by almost 50 percent compared to the same period in 2016, and the export of South Ossetian goods to Russia grew by more than a quarter.
The heads of the two states instructed the Intergovernmental Commission to take additional measures to stimulate bilateral export and import exchanges. The new Investment Program for 2018-2019 has already been prepared, which will be approved in the near future, as well as a special package of concessional lending for the population and enterprises of South Ossetia for a total of more than 1 billion rubles. Funds are allocated primarily to the rise of the agro-industrial complex, support for small business.
As one can see, the Republic of South Ossetia, with all-round assistance of Russia, is systematically developing in all directions, covering more and more new areas.
