South Ossetia’s president resigns and joins Putin’s presidential staff, reviving questions about Russian annexation

Alan Gagloev, the president of the partially recognized republic of South Ossetia, resigned on June 23. He said he had accepted an offer to become an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has already published a decree appointing him to the post.

“I have backed our historic leader Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and am ready to stand by his side,” Gagloev said. “As of today, I am joining the Russian presidential administration and stepping down as president of South Ossetia.”

The resignation came the day after the Kremlin reported on his meeting with Putin. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting covered “prospects for further expanding bilateral dialogue, including in light of the bilateral agreement that was signed in May in Moscow.”

Peskov was referring to the Treaty on Deepening Allied Interaction between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Ossetia, signed May 9, 2026, which among other things allows Russian citizens to hold government positions in the partially recognized republic, and vice versa.

In mid-May, the State Duma ratified the treaty, and on June 8, Gagloev nominated Marat Kambolov — a Russian citizen who had worked in the Russian government and held leadership positions at the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center — to head the South Ossetian government. On June 16, parliament approved Kambolov’s nomination and appointed him prime minister.

Mikhail Kovalchuk heads the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, where Kambolov worked from 2014 to 2026. The Kovalchuk brothers, Mikhail and Yury, are part of what analysts and journalists covering the Kremlin have long described as Putin’s inner circle.

Kambolov served as prime minister for just one week before becoming the head of the breakaway republic, whose independence only five UN members — Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria — currently recognize. Under South Ossetian law, when the president resigns, the head of government becomes acting president until snap elections are held.

A source close to Russia’s presidential administration told Meduza in 2022 about a “scenario” that was “being developed in the Kremlin” for annexing South Ossetia and Abkhazia — either into Russia or into the Union State of Russia and Belarus. The move, the source said, could be used to demonstrate “territorial gains” to the Russian public after the Russian military withdrew from parts of Ukrainian territory it had occupied.

That scenario “was discussed seriously, but only briefly,” the source said. “In Ossetia, the majority of the population is in favor, but in Abkhazia, the majority is categorically opposed. In the end, annexing Ossetia alone was seen as too small a prize.” A political consultant familiar with South Ossetian politics described the republic as “a gray zone where money laundering and illicit cash schemes run rampant, so they [Kremlin officials] decided not to touch it.”

After losing the election, Gagloev’s predecessor as South Ossetian president, Anatoly Bibilov, signed a decree calling for a referendum on unifying South Ossetia with Russia. Upon taking office, Gagloev “postponed” the referendum.

“Apparently, they’re thinking again about a mini-USSR project,” a political operative who worked on the South Ossetian elections told Meduza.