S Ossetia opposition leader becomes deputy PM

Alla Dzhioyeva, a South Ossetian opposition leader and candidate in last year’s disputed presidential elections, has been appointed deputy prime minister, a South Ossetian presidential administration official said. President Leonid Tibilov signed a relevant decree on Wednesday. According to preliminary results, Dzhioyeva won the presidential election in the breakaway state in November against a pro-Kremlin candidate. The Supreme Court annulled the results, citing violations and banned her from running again, which led her and her supporters to the central square of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. On her new post, Dzhioyeva will be in charge of the social sphere. When asked about her priorities, she told RIA Novosti she would work to improve conditions in which inmates are held at South Ossetian prisons. “I will try to save those who were jailed… because of my presidential campaign – although it wasn’t my guilt,” she said. She also said she was planning to take “concrete steps” to improve health care and education in South Ossetia, and to address problems in the cultural sphere. South Ossetia broke away from Georgia during the 1990s after a civil war broke out in the country in 1991. Georgia sent troops into South Ossetia in 2008 in a bid to regain control, but Russia intervened and forced the Georgian forces out. Georgia regards the region as its territory. It is recognized as an independent state only by Russia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and a few tiny Pacific island states.