Anatoly Bibilov says "South Ossetian Republic must become part of Russia"

According to Anatoly Bibilov, the de facto president of South Ossetia, "the republic must be part of Russia and the Ossetian people must get united."

“It will be historically correct if the republic of South Ossetia becomes part of the Russian Federation. People cannot live separately. In one part, in the smaller one there is a republic, while the other part belongs to Russia. It would be right for the Ossetian people to be part of Russia and after that we should try to make Ossetia united again, without being divided in the north and the south. This is very important and vital for the Ossetian people,” Bibilov told reporters.

In his view, "if people are divided, there will be no common development for them."

“Therefore, there is no need to change the ideology of unification. The ideology should be one - unification of the Ossetian people and development of this united ethnicity in Russia's development vector," Bibilov said.