Eduard Kokoity
Eduard Dzhabeyevich Kokoity (surname also rendered as
Kokoyty or
Kokoiti or in a
Russified version as
Kokoyev) is the current President of
South Ossetia, a
de facto (though internationally unrecognized) independent state within the
Republic of Georgia. Born in
1964, Kokoity is a former member, and champion, of the Russian national wrestling team. Prior to
1989, he was the First Secretary of the
Tskhinvali branch of the
Komsomol, the Young Communists League. He moved to
Moscow in 1992 where he became a businessman, before moving back to South Ossetia in
2001.
He was elected at the age of 38 with a large majority in the presidential elections of November-December 2001. In the first round of the elections on
November 18, 2001, he collected 45% of the votes,
Stanislav Kochiev 24%, and incumbent
Lyudvig Chibirov 21%. He won 53% of the vote against 40% for Stanislav Kochiev in the second round on
December 6 and took office on
December 18.
Kokoity's victory was unexpected but owed much to the backing of the Tedeyev clan, one of South Ossetia's most powerful families. He had gained key backing from Albert "Dik" Tedeyev and his brother Jambulat, a world wrestling champion and trainer of Russia's wrestling team, who organised and financed Kokoity's election campaign. The clan had previously supported Lyudvig Chibirov but broke off support for him after he attempted to move against them. After Kokoity was elected president, members of the Tedeyev clan took over responsibility for the republic's customs service and for freight traffic along the Transcaucasian highway. As well as being the main economic lifeline between South Ossetia and
Russia, the highway is a major route for smuggling and for the drugs and arms trade. Revenues from the highway provide much of the South Ossetian government's revenue.
In July
2003, Kokoity moved against the Tedeyevs, sacking Albert Tedeyev from his position as secretary of the security council, and ordered their private militias to disarm. According to Kokoity, the security council secretary as well as the defence and security chiefs had links with criminals. The affair prompted an outbreak of gunfire in Tskhinvali but no casualties were reported.
Kokoity has taken a strong position against reunification with Georgia, although he has expressed a willingness to negotiate a peace settlement on the basis of South Ossetia being treated as an independent state (a precondition rejected by the
Tbilisi government). Following a tense stand-off with the central Georgian authorities in July
2004, he claimed "Georgia wants war. But we are ready for self-defense."
