Dmitry Ivanovich Sanakoyev | |
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Defense Minister of South Ossetia | |
In office 2000–2000 |
|
President | Lyudvig Chibirov |
Preceded by | Nikolai Dzagoev |
Prime Minister of South Ossetia | |
In office 14 June 2001 – December 2001 |
|
President | Lyudvig Chibirov |
Preceded by | Merab Chigoev |
Succeeded by | Gerasim Khugayev |
Head of the Provisional Administrative Entity of South Ossetia | |
Assumed office May 4, 2007 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Tskhinvali, Soviet Union |
May 10, 1969
Political party | The Salvation Union of South Ossetia |
Dmitry Ivanovich Sanakoyev (born 10 May 1969 in Tskhinvali, South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union) is a South Ossetian and Georgian politician, a former official in the secessionist government of South Ossetia and currently Head of the Provisional Administration of South Ossetia, a rival entity established in 2007 in the Georgian-controlled territories of this separatist region.
Sanakoyev was born in Tskhinvali, in what was then the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast of the Georgian SSR. He graduated from the South Ossetian Pedagogical State Institute in 1993, and served as a Soviet army officer in Lithuania from 1987 to 1989. In the 1991-1992 war between Georgian forces and secessionist militias he fought on the Ossetian side. In 1993-1996 worked in the South Ossetian de facto defence ministry. In 1996 he was appointed defence minister and in 1998 vice prime minister. In July 2001 he became prime minister of South Ossetia, serving until December 2001, when Eduard Kokoity replaced Lyudvig Chibirov as South Ossetia’s leader.
During the South Ossetian presidential elections, 2006, on November 13, in a so-called "alternative" poll organized by The Salvation Union of South Ossetia in Georgian- and Ossetian villages not controlled by the separatists, Sanakoyev was declared the president-elect, with more than 80 percent of the vote. His campaign posters were prominently posted on walls outside polling stations in Georgian-controlled villages, and benefited from extensive media coverage in the Georgian press. His election manifesto envisaged the restoration of the region's status as an autonomous republic within Georgia and a program of measures to spur economic growth.