On October 13, the de facto President of the Tskhinvali region, Alan Gagloyev, held a meeting with a delegation of the Russian Federation Council. The head of the Russian delegation was a member of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, Sergei Tsekov. The Russian “Ambassador” to the region, Marat Kulakhmetov, also participated in the meeting.

On October 9 (before the above mentioned meeting), the “delegation” of Tskhinvali paid a visit to Moscow. During the visit Russia and the de facto parliament signed a cooperation memorandum which provides for the creation of an “inter-parliamentary” commission to discuss issues of cooperation between the de facto republic and Russia within the framework of the “parliamentary commission.”

At the meeting, Gagloyev highlighted the importance of the memorandum and expressed his gratitude to Russian colleagues for this opportunity. Tsekov, for his part, noted that the contacts between the occupied region and Russia are becoming more intense, which is manifested by the implemented works.

Much of the meeting was devoted to reviewing Russian military aggression in Ukraine and highlighted the importance of supporting the militants involved. Gagloyev thanked Tsekov for supporting those from the occupied region who were fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine. For information, as per open source reports, a total of 37 fighters from the Tskhinvali region who have been participating in the Russian aggression since February 24, 2022, were killed. As the former de facto president of the region, Anatoly Bibilov, stated, about 1,200 fighters from the region are participating in the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.

In addition, the meeting discussed the issue of “dual citizenship” for residents of the occupied region. As Tsekov stated, reaching an agreement on citizenship is one of the key issues to be discussed. The agreement has been signed and ratified; only normative-legal issues remain unresolved, which should be completed by the end of the year, he believes.

The meeting discussion also touched upon the importance of tourism development in the region.