Alla Jioyeva, an opposition candidate whose victory in the presidential runoff in breakaway South Ossetia was annulled, said after talks with a Kremlin official in Tskhinvali that “for the first time” since the launch of consultations on November 30 she had left the negotiating table “with positive” stance.

“We have listened and we have been heard,” she said after the talks on December 7, as her supporters continued rallying in Tskhinvali center for the eight day. “We very much hope that the next round will be more fruitful.”

Sergey Vinokurov, who is in charge of inter-regional and cultural relations with foreign countries at the Russian President's administration, is in Tskhinvali since November 30. Supporters of Jioyeva have previously openly accused him of siding with the authorities instead of mediating.

Jioyeva hailed a decision by the incumbent leader of breakaway region, Eduard Kokoity, to sack several senior officials. Citing “public discontent”, Kokoity fired on December 7 education minister; healthcare minister; head of the information and communications committee; Tskhinvali mayor; head of the Znauri district and mayor of Kvaisi. The opposition has been calling for resignation of Kokoity, as well as of chief prosecutor Taimuraz Khugaev.

In another important development on December 7, one of the vice-speakers of the breakaway region’s Parliament, Yuri Dzitsoiti, said in a written statement that Eduard Kokoity’s term in office had expired and PM of the breakaway region Vadim Brovtsev should now become an acting president.

Dzitsoiti, who is a member of ruling Unity party which backed in the elections Jioyeva’s rival candidate Anatoly Bibilov, said that although the Parliament set March 25, 2012 as the date for repeat elections, Kokoity can not stay in power till that date because his constitutional term in office expired on December 7.

“He must resign and the presidential duties should be assumed temporarily by PM Brovtsev,” Dzitsoiti said, adding that Brovtsev, “as a person not involved” in the post-election crisis “can prepare necessary conditions for holding of repeat election.”

Brovtsev, who is not a native of South Ossetia, was running a construction firm in Chelyabinsk, a city 1,600 km east of Moscow, before he became PM in breakaway South Ossetia in August, 2009.

“This option [Brovtsev as acting president] is normal; that’s acceptable for us,” Jioyeva was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency.