The de facto parliament of the occupied Tskhinvali/South Ossetia unanimously approved on October 23 the appointment of Soslan Margiev as “prime minister,” culminating a series of appointments in the region’s executive branch after newly “elected” de facto leader Marat Kambolov took office following the early “presidential vote” in September.
According to the region’s so-called “constitution,” the “president” appoints the “head of government” with the consent of “parliament,” while the “president” can independently appoint and dismiss members of the “government” and heads of executive bodies.
Margiev was born on June 20, 1982, in Tskhinvali. He worked in the Russian judicial system for more than 20 years, including serving as chairman of the Lobnya City Court in the Moscow Region in 2022-2026. He also previously served as deputy head of the Anti-Corruption Division of the Judicial Department under the Supreme Court of Russia.
Also on October 22, the region’s “parliament” unanimously approved the nomination of Emilia Gagieva for the position of head of the region’s “Central Election Commission” for a second consecutive term.
Earlier, on October 19, Kambolov appointed Ekaterina Tolstikova, a native of Russia, as first deputy “chairman of the government” of the region.
Other Appointments
Following his “election,” Kambolov has made a number of other appointments to the region’s de facto executive branch. Radion Gabaraev became the “minister of internal affairs,” Yuri Yarovitsky was appointed “minister of defense,” Vladimir Pukhaev was appointed “minister of civil defense, emergency situations, and disaster relief,” and Akhsar Dzhioev was appointed “minister of foreign affairs.”
On September 23, Kambolov signed a decree appointing Erislav Zasseev as “minister of agriculture.” The agency was subsequently reorganized into the “Ministry of Agriculture and Food.”
Kambolov also appointed Inna Dzudtsova as “minister of finance,” Oleg Glagolev as “minister of labor and social protection,” Alena Kochieva as “minister of land and property relations,” and Igor Tasoev as “minister of culture.”
On October 22, Kambolov dismissed Yuri Kadiya from his post as head of the region’s “State Security Committee” (KGB) and appointed Evgeny Romanov in his place.
In separate decrees, Kambolov appointed the heads of government agencies. Aslan Basiev was appointed head of the “Customs Service,” Mairbeg Guchmazov was appointed head of the “Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Service,” Rita Dzutsati was appointed head of the “Registration, Cadastre, and Cartography Service,” and Marina Kochieva was appointed head of the “Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Consumer Protection and Human Well-Being.”
Tskhinvali ‘Elections’ and Russia ‘Treaty’
Appointments follow Tskhinvali’s early so-called “presidential vote” in September, widely condemned by Tbilisi and the West as “null and void,” which led to the “election” of Marat Kambolov, a North Ossetian-born long-time Russian official with no prior links to Tskhinvali, as the occupied region’s new de facto leader.
The early vote was called following the June resignation of former de facto president Alan Gagloev, who moved to Russia to serve as Putin’s adviser. Kambolov, a North Ossetian-born former Russian official with no prior links to the region, who had been appointed the region’s “prime minister” a week before Gagloev’s resignation, assumed the role of an interim leader.
The recent changes and the subsequent early “vote” follow the so-called “Treaty on Deepening Allied Cooperation” signed between Tskhinvali and Moscow on May 9, which, among others, allows “citizens” of one side to “hold state and municipal positions” in the other.
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