The Republic of South Ossetia -Historical and Political and Legal Foundations of Independence

   This article discusses the features of the formation of the statehood of the Republic of South Ossetia in the context of international law and the legislation of the USSR. The legal, political and historical aspects of Georgian-Ossetian relations are analyzed. The subject of this work is the historical, political and legal aspects of the acquisition of state sovereignty by the people of South Ossetia in the context of the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the collision of the principles of international law: the self-determination of peoples (nations) and the integrity of the territory of the state. In the course of the work, historiographic, scientific and journalistic materials of domestic and foreign authors in the field of political science, conflictology, political history, and international law were used. The study was based on a combination of such methodological principles as consistency, historicism, and scientific objectivity. Comparative-legal method, problem-chronological, formal-legal methods were used as special-scientific methods. The author shows that the reference point of the modern phase of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, which ended with the invasion of South  Ossetia on August 8, 2008 by the Georgian army, is the collapse of the USSR and the associated processes of sovereignization and politicization of interethnic relations among the peoples of the post-Soviet space. The article substantiates that the territory of South Ossetia has never been part of the sovereign Georgian state, since the Georgian small principalities began to alternately become part of Russia only in 1801, after Ossetia was annexed to the Russian Empire in 1774. Subsequently, the territory of South Ossetia was included (against their will) in the administrative space of Georgia on a geographical basis within the framework of the territorial-state structure of a single country (the Russian Empire, the USSR, the Russian Federation). Non-standard political and legal issues of the collapse of the USSR, features of separatism and radicalization of the Georgian SSR, as a result of which, in the author's opinion, right de jure divorced the South Ossetian autonomy and Georgia within the framework of the Soviet Union, are covered. The article also touches upon the problematic issues of the status of the international borders of the independent states of the post-Soviet space in accordance with international law and the principle of uti possidetis. The author summarizes that the UN recognition of the state territory of sovereign Georgia, within the administrative boundaries of the former Georgian SSR, is devoid of legal grounds and does not comply with international law, while the declaration of independence of the Republic of South Ossetia took place in strict accordance with the norms of international law and the legislation of the USSR.

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