The Georgian parliament abolished the South Ossetian administration in exile

Parliament approved a decision to abolish the administration of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Region effective January 1, 2026.

As the " Caucasian Knot " reported earlier, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze called the creation of the South Ossetian administration in 2007 a "deliberate betrayal" and a violation of the Georgian Constitution. 

The South Ossetian administration established in 2007 is being abolished. The Georgian parliament supported the decision to repeal the relevant legislation on December 17. According to the Georgian Dream initiative, the administration will cease functioning on January 1, 2026. However, the municipal administrations of Akhalgori, Kurta, Tigvi, and Eredvi will continue to operate in exile, as they were elected earlier, in 2006, Georgia-Online reported.

The decision was passed unanimously by 83 votes. Employees of this now former administration will be dismissed and paid compensation equal to three months' salary, Jamnews reports.

"This is a historic decision. We can put an end to the treacherous saga the National Movement regime waged around the South Ossetia issue in 2005-2008 and in the years that followed," said Tornike Cheishvili, a member of the ruling Georgian Dream party. 

He stated that the previous authorities, when Mikheil Saakashvili was president and the ruling party was the now opposition National Movement, “pursued an anti-state policy.”

"By creating this administrative-territorial unit (the administration of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Region), they continued what the Bolsheviks did in Georgia in the 1920s. We must return to the legal status quo that the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia and its head, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, adopted in 1990, when the autonomous region was completely abolished," the publication quotes Cheishvili as saying.

The Tbilisi-based administration was created to govern the territory of the former autonomous region, despite the lack of Georgian government control over the region. Led by Vladimir Sanakoyev and later Tamaz Bestayev, the structure focused primarily on humanitarian issues and assistance to South Ossetian refugees, according to Novosti-Gruzia.

The " Caucasian Knot " wrote that on the 17th anniversary of the start of the five-day war, on August 8, 2025, Kobakhidze stated that the war in 2008  began  not as a defensive operation by Georgia against Russia, but as an escalation of the conflict after "an unprovoked offensive on Tskhinvali" by "the then regime," citing President Mikheil Saakashvili's decree introducing martial law.