South Ossetia’s de facto regime keeps saying that a “color revolution” is not going to play out in the troubled enclave over its disputed de facto presidential election results, but events continue to be pretty, well, colorful.
With Alla Jioyeva and supporters showing no sign of dropping her claim to power, de facto leader Eduard Kokoity on December 2 offered to let her run in what would be the third attempt to elect his successor, in March 2012.
But Jioyeva claims she is already president after a November 27 de facto runoff poll that gave her a convincing lead over the Kokoity-backed candidate, Anatoliy Bibilov, and sees no need to call off the protest. If the March de facto vote goes through, her backers will take to the street again, and disrupt the election, she pledged.
Citing election fraud, the enclave’s de facto Supreme Court earlier had annulled the de facto election results and barred Jioyeva from running in a third round.
But Jioyeva says that South Ossetians chose differently. She and her supporters are now baffled about why the current authorities and Russia refuse to accept her. “Why don’t you love me, Russia?” Jioyeva mused, adding that she is a “Russian by passport and in my spirit.”
Many observers are asking the same question. Especially given that Russia made it its job to protect South Ossetia and calls it an independent country. Jioyeva is no different from Bibilov in espousing pro-Russian policies, so why doesn't Moscow leave well enough alone, asks one blogger for the Moscow-based radio station Ekho Moskvy.
Moscow's cold shoulder, though, doesn't appear to throw Jioyeva off her paces. Like many a school teacher (and former de facto education minister), looks like she can command an audience.
One blogger reports that after government guards reportedly fired warning shots amid her supporters' November 30 protests, she approached the guards and picked out a few of her former students. “Misha, do you remember me?” she asked one of the men, who nodded. “Now, you are not going to shoot at me, are you?”
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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