Georgian Dream Announces Plan to End South Ossetia Provisional Administration
By Liza Mchedlidze
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
The ruling Georgian Dream party has decided to abolish the provisional administration for South Ossetia, a structure created in 2007 during Mikheil Saakashvili's presidency. The administration has continued to operate since then and has been led by Tamaz Bestaev since November 2022.
At a briefing on November 17, Georgian Dream Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili strongly criticized the decisions that led to the creation of the body. He said the elections held in the Tskhinvali region in 2006 by the former United National Movement government were unconstitutional. According to him, those elections produced, in his words, "a so called president of South Ossetia and a so called alternative government."
Papuashvili argued that the move "indirectly granted legitimacy to separatist processes," which he described as "a clear and grave betrayal of Georgia's state interests." He said the provisional administration formed in 2007 was also created "in violation of the Constitution" because it relied on the same alternative setup.
He said this decision "artificially restored" the borders of the former South Ossetian Autonomous District, which had been abolished in 1990. He added that this helped create conditions that "later became one of the contributing factors to the 2008 Russian military aggression and the occupation of Georgia's historic region of Samachablo."
Looking back, Papuashvili said it is now clear that the decisions taken at the time were "part of a geopolitical game by external forces" and that Georgia was treated as "a sacrificial pawn." In his view, the policies of the Saakashvili government "escalated the situation in the region and ultimately led the country to war."
He also referred to Parliament's broader assessment of that period, noting that lawmakers have called the decisions "a blatant betrayal of Georgia's national interests." He pointed out that the same argument appears in a current constitutional case seeking to ban the United National Movement and two other opposition parties.
Papuashvili added that simply using the term South Ossetia in official language during that period "was from the outset a betrayal of the Constitution and national interests," saying that "there is no such thing as South Ossetia in Georgia's legal or political space."
After talks with the government, he announced that the provisional administration will now be abolished. He said the municipalities of Akhalgori, Kurta, Tighvi and Eredvi, which were elected under Georgian law in 2006 and now operate in exile, will remain in place. He called them "the only legitimately elected and functioning authorities in the Tskhinvali region" and said they continue Georgia's "legal and constitutional framework."
