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Federation Council ratifies Treaty of Alliance and Integration with South Ossetia

The treaty will be signed for 25 years with a possible extension for subsequent ten-year periods

MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. Russia’s Federation Council has ratified on Wednesday a Treaty of Alliance and Integration between Russia and South Ossetia. The document was signed on March 18, 2015, in Moscow by the leaders of Russia and South Ossetia. The South Ossetian parliament ratified it on April 3.

The treaty envisages specifically the formation of the common security and defence space by the two countries, free border crossing, integration of the customs agencies, cooperation between the Interior Ministry bodies, simplification of the procedures for acquiring Russian citizenship and the social factors, including indexation of pensions.

According to Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s 4th CIS Department Mikhail Shurgalin, the document "is a follow-up of the vast contractual legal framework of relations between Russia and friendly South Ossetia." "This framework is made up of 83 bilateral documents and relies on the so-called big Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance of September 17, 2008," the diplomat said. He added that the new treaty was a framework agreement and would serve in the future as the basis for bilateral agreements ‘in the social, economic and humanitarian spheres, as well in defence and security."

The treaty will promote "the establishment of South Ossetia as a modern democratic state, strengthening of its international profile, ensuring reliable security and the republic’s social and economic formation," Shurgalin said.

The treaty will be signed for 25 years with a possible extension for subsequent ten-year periods.