A draft law on ratifying a new treaty with South Ossetia has been submitted to the State Duma.

Vladimir Putin proposed that the State Duma ratify the treaty on deepening allied cooperation with South Ossetia, signed on May 9 in Moscow.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," an alliance and integration treaty was signed between Russia and South Ossetia on March 18, 2015, and came into force on July 30, 2015. The document provides for opening the border, increasing pensions and salaries, and ensuring the security of South Ossetia without joining Russia.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia did not see a threat from a possible rapprochement between Georgia and Russia

Vladimir Putin introduced a bill to the State Duma on ratifying the treaty on deepening allied cooperation between Russia and South Ossetia, signed on May 9, TASS reported today.

"Ratify the treaty on deepening allied cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Ossetia, signed in Moscow on May 9, 2026," the agency quotes the text of the bill.

According to the explanatory note to the document, posted today in the "Lawmaking" system on the State Duma website, the goals of deepening cooperation are stated as "ensuring regional peace and stability, conducting coordinated foreign, defense, and security policies, improving socio-economic conditions, developing infrastructure," and creating a favorable environment for the free movement of "capital, goods, services, and labor" between Russia and South Ossetia.

"The parties support the development of cooperation on the gradual unification of energy (including gas transportation) and transport systems, communication and telecommunications systems, and also promote the further expansion of interaction in the labor, social, and cultural spheres," the explanatory note says.

Treaty signed by Putin and Gagloev

Vladimir Putin and South Ossetian President Alan Gagloev signed an agreement on deepening allied cooperation on May 9, Gazeta.ru reported the same day.

"I know that you worked on this document. This is an improvement of our contractual and legal regulatory framework. bases, and it will provide an opportunity to further deepen our relations, primarily in the trade and economic sphere and in resolving social issues in the interests of the citizens of South Ossetia," the publication quoted Putin as saying.

19:00 March 18, 2023

Journalists assess the results of Gagloev's meeting with Putin

At his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, Alan Gagloev did not raise the sensitive issue of South Ossetia's annexation to Russia, but demonstrated to his voters that he had secured Moscow's support on issues of security and gasification of villages, according to journalists Murat Gukemukhov and Ruslan Totrov. Blogger Batraz Misikov believed that the President of South Ossetia voiced what Putin wanted to hear at the meeting.

Gagloev, in turn, stated that relations between Russia and South Ossetia are reaching a new level, according to the publication.

As a reminder, in 2016, South Ossetia and Russia signed a pension agreement. According to the document, if the total pension benefit for Russian pensioners living in South Ossetia does not reach the average pension benefit in the North Caucasus Federal District, a supplement is added to the total pension benefit. In March 2017, the Federation Council ratified this agreement.

However, in February 2025, the Russian Cabinet demanded that the agreement be amended after discovering that over eight years, more than 37.7 million rubles had been transferred to the accounts of deceased pensioners. Russian authorities prepared a demand that the South Ossetian side return the excess pensions received.