Leonid Tibilov, ex-chief of local KGB, who was declared the winner of the April 8 presidential runoff in breakaway South Ossetia, was inaugurated in Tskhinvali on Thursday.

The ceremony was attended by Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, State Duma, who pledged Moscow’s support to the new leader of the breakaway region.

“South Ossetia’s cooperation with Russia in social-economic, military, political and humanitarian spheres will be expanding from year to year”, Naryshkin said, according to the local news agency RES.

During a meeting with Tibilov he also said that the aid funds allocated by Russia to the region should be spent “effectively” and “without violations.”  

“I want to assure the leadership of the Russian Federation that we will do our best to continue the course chosen by our people – with Russia forever,” Tibilov told the Speaker of the Russian State Duma. “We will spare no efforts to ensure that all those agreements concluded between our countries are fulfilled in the near future.”