Kokoity approves new Government

De facto South Ossetia has a new and significantly changed Cabinet of Ministers. Secessionist leader Eduard Kokoity approved the new de facto Cabinet on Saturday, appointing some Russian officials to senior posts in his ‘Government.’

The former head of the Federal Tax Service in Russia’s North Ossetia, Aslanbek Bulatsev, is the new Prime Minister of the de facto Republic, replacing Boris Chochiev. Alexander Bolshakov, now the Chief of the de facto South Ossetian Republic’s Administration, is another Russian official in Kokoity’s Government, formerly Vice-Governor of Russia’s Ulyanovsk Oblast and the head of Dmitry Medvedev’s election headquarters in the same region during the Russian Presidential Elections. Newly appointed Defense Minister Yuri Tanaev is also from Russia, where he holds the Army rank of Maj. Gen, according to the Ossetian media. The new Minister of Education, Anatoly Kursaev, is also from Russia’s North Ossetia.

According to the South Ossetian so called State Committee of Information and Press, the structure of the breakaway South Ossetian Government has also undergone some changes. The Special Affairs Ministry has been abolished and the Ministry of Communication and Information has been created. The Ministry of Defence and Emergency Situations has been divided into the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergency Situations and Natural Calamity Results Liquidation. Changes also touched several other Ministries and committees, including the Sports, Culture and Tourism Committee, Natural Resources and Environment Committee and State Committee of Information – all of these have been transformed into Ministries. According to the de facto South Ossetian leader’s press service employees of the transformed or abolished Governmental bodies will carry on fulfilling their functions until the reorganization of personnel is completed in the newly established Ministries.

Eduard Kokoity dismissed the breakaway region’s Government on August 18, following the military actions on the territory of South Ossetia. Kokoity said later that he had taken the right decision by sacking the Government because, as he said, it was “failing to tackle its tasks in the crisis situation.”