Moscow and Tskhinvali are working on a new “comprehensive agreement on integration”, Boris Chochiev, head of administration of the breakaway South Ossetia’s de facto president, said on November 20.

Tskhinvali-based official news agency, RES, reported citing Chochiev that the new treaty would bring bilateral relations “qualitatively on new level, first of all in the military sphere.” No other details of the planned new treaty have been reported.

Meanwhile, government in breakaway Abkhazia endorsed on November 19 for signature draft treaty on “alliance and strategic partnership” with Russia; final text of the treaty incorporates many, but not all, of the changes which were made by the Abkhaz side in the initial, Russia-proposed draft.

Anatoly Bibilov, whose United Ossetia party won majority of seats in breakaway South Ossetian parliament in June, and who was elected as speaker of the legislative body, was running a pre-election campaign on the promise of holding a referendum on joining the Russian Federation, but no such vote has yet been scheduled in the breakaway region.