Ex-South Ossetian president objects to referendum on joining Russia
MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax) - Holding a referendum in South Ossetia on its becoming part of the Russian Federation is unreasonable, former South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity, who has declared his desire to run for president in the 2017 elections, said in a statement circulated on Thursday.
"I am addressing President of the Republic of South Ossetia Leonid Kharitonovich Tibilov and Chairman of the Parliament of the Republic of South Ossetia Anatoly Ilyich Bibilov to reconsider the joint statement on supporting the decision by the South Ossetian presidential political council of May 26, 2016 on holding a referendum on the Republic of South Ossetia's accession to the Russian Federation in 2017," Kokoity said.
Instead of this, Kokoity suggested that, following a public discussion, a referendum on renaming South Ossetia should be held simultaneously with the 2017 presidential elections.
Kokoity proposed that people should be asked in this referendum whether they agree to rename the Republic of South Ossetia the Republic of Alania and "to revive the traditional definition of our nationality as the Alans instead of the existing Ossetians."
Kokoity pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed a new concept of Russia's foreign policy on November 30, 2016, whose clause 57 mentions the facilitation of the Republic of Abkhazia's and the Republic of South Ossetia's development as modern democratic states, the strengthening of their international positions, and the promotion of their reliable security and socioeconomic recovery among Russia's priorities.
"Considering this circumstance and also the fact that the president and parliament of South Ossetia are invested by the constitution with enough powers to decide on setting up a union state, I believe the organization of a referendum on investing the president of the Republic of South Ossetia with extra powers is senseless and needless," Kokoity said.
Therefore, "a plebiscite with such an agenda would be nothing more than the waste of finances," he said.