Leonid Tibilov, leader of breakaway South Ossetia, said that Tskhinvali is willing to join the Russian Federation, but the issue has not been raised for now.

“I think that this idea of accession to the Russian Federation exists among our people – that’s not a secret,” Itar-Tass news agency reported quoting Tibilov as saying at a news conference in Moscow on March 19, a day after he and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaty on “alliance and integration”, which was condemned by Tbilisi as an “actual annexation” of South Ossetia by Russia.

“We will try to implement this idea. But as of today we have not raised it because lots of issues are being taken into account,” Tibilov said.