Eduard Kokoity: biography, personal life, family and career

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

The former president of the Republic of South Ossetia, which belongs to the partially recognized states, now heads the Unity party. One can treat Eduard Kokoity in different ways, but under him Russia recognized the former rebellious Georgian region as a country.

Early years

Eduard Dzhabeevich Kokoity was born (sometimes the Russian media use the variant of the surname - Kokoev) on October 31, 1964 in the city of Tskhinvali, South Ossetian Autonomous Region, Georgian SSR. Father Jabe Gavrilovich worked for a long time in a local boiler house. Demo Pukhaeva's mother was engaged in raising children and housekeeping, bred rabbits and chickens. Neighbors believe that they have not changed, even when the son became a big official, they behaved as before. Yes, and Edik always said hello. The family of Eduard Dzhabeevich Kokoity has always enjoyed respect among their friends and neighbors.

In 1980 he graduated from high school in his hometown. During the Five Day War it was completely destroyed. Local residents say that they destroyed it precisely because "our President Eduard Kokoity" studied here. In the 80s he won the Georgian freestyle wrestling championship amongyoung men, having fulfilled the standard of the master of sports of the USSR.

Start in employment

After high school, he worked as an electrician at the local post office for several years. Since 1983, he served in the Soviet armed forces. He rose to the position of deputy platoon commander in the Air Defense Forces of the Moscow District, Kursk.

After demobilization, he studied at the Faculty of Physical Education of the South Ossetian State Pedagogical Institute, graduating in 1988 with a degree in physical education.

His mentor of those times, Mira Tsavrebova, believes that Kokoev was deservedly elected secretary of the Komsomol Committee of the institute. And although there was an opinion about the students of the sports faculty that they were not distinguished by intelligence, they would not have been entrusted with such a position to a loser.

The first Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

After receiving higher education, the biography of Eduard Kokoity continued in the Komsomol work. By 1991, he already headed the city Komsomol Committee and was a republican deputy. At this time, the processes of the collapse of the Soviet Union began, Georgia officially declared independence, and its autonomous region decided to remain part of the Soviet country.

Armed clashes began between the Georgian police, the National Guard and the South Ossetian self-defense units. According to the official biography of Eduard Dzhabeevich Kokoity, during this interethnic conflict, he created and led the self-defense detachment of South Ossetia. Later joined inthe composition of the group of Gri Kochiev, a weightlifter and a prominent public figure, who was considered a key figure in the defense of the rebellious region. Although Kokoity was not among the leaders of the armed resistance, he became one of the few officials who directly participated in the hostilities.

In private business

After the end of the active phase of the conflict, the hero of our article went to Moscow, where he led the Yunost charity sports foundation, which assisted in the treatment and restoration of South Ossetian participants in the past hostilities. According to the opposition, he was mainly engaged in the supply of Ossetian vodka to the Russian market, for which strong Caucasian guys with combat experience were needed.

In September 1996, Eduard Kokoity officially took the position of Deputy General Director of Frang CJSC. The company specialized in real estate and trade operations with South Ossetia. Georgian authorities accused him of organizing arms and drug smuggling.

From ministers to presidents

In 1997, Eduard Kokoity became officially the head of trade of the rebellious region with his main partner, having received an appointment as a trade representative with the rank of minister in the Russian Federation. The first president of South Ossetia, Ludwig Chibirov, did not yet know that he was growing a competitor. At the same time (from 1999 to 2001) he was listed as an assistant to Anatoly Chekhoev, a State Duma deputy from North Ossetia. In 2000, he retired from the statepost and became a simple general director of Frang CJSC. Since March 2001, he was a member of the leadership of the public movement "For Ossetia".

In December of the same year, Eduard Kokoity won the presidential election in South Ossetia, beating Chibirov and Kochiev, a representative of the Ossetian communists. Some experts believe that the decisive factor was the support of the Tedeev brothers, popular among Ossetians: Dzambolat, world freestyle wrestling champion and head coach of the Russian national team, and Ibragim, businessman and chairman of the human rights commission.

Another aggravation

In the spring of 2004, Georgia, without the consent of the Ossetian administration and the Russian peacekeeping forces, introduced detachments of its Ministry of Internal Affairs and groups of army special forces into the region of South Ossetia. It was officially announced that the purpose of the raid is to combat smuggling. There was a sharp escalation of confrontation between Georgia and South Ossetia. There were casu alties not only among the Ossetian and Georgian military personnel, but also among the civilian Ossetian population. Only on August 20, the Georgian military was withdrawn from the disputed zone.

In June 2006, the heads of the unrecognized republics of South Ossetia, Transnistria and Abkhazia signed an agreement on the possibility of creating a joint peacekeeping force. Eduard Kokoity has always positioned himself as a politician seeking closer cooperation with Russia. And he has stated many times that the key political task isentry of the unrecognized republic into Russia. In March of the same year, he announced that he had filed an application for accession with the Russian Constitutional Court.

Recognition of independence

In November 2006, Eduard Kokoity was almost unanimously elected for a second term, 96% of voters voted for him. Along with the presidential elections, a referendum was held, in which 99% of the inhabitants of the region voted for the independence of the region, with a turnout of 95.2%.

During the armed conflict that began on 08.08.2008, he was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. In the morning, with the beginning of the shelling of Tskhinvali, Kokoity, together with the guards, moved to the village of Java, not far from the border with Russia, where he remained until August 11. This made it possible for the opposition to subsequently accuse him of cowardice. After the defeat of the Georgian troops by the Russian army on August 26, Russia recognized the independence of two republics - Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

In 2011, presidential elections were held, in which Eduard Kokoity did not take part. After the election results were declared invalid and the opposition was active, he resigned in exchange for an end to the protests. In 2017, he made an attempt to register as a presidential candidate, but could not pass the residency requirement - to confirm permanent residence in the territory of a partially recognized state for 10 years.

Private life

Not much is known about the politician's personal life. According to press reports, he had two wives, one Georgian, the other Ossetian. Butit is known for certain that now Kokoity is married to Madina Tolparova. He has three sons. What the children of Eduard Dzhabeevich Kokoity are doing is not reported in the open press. Ossetian media wrote about the presence of real estate in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladikavkaz, and some even talked about a house in Italy.

During the war on 08.08.08, a girl was often shown with her aunt, who gave interviews on American television. They began to talk about the attack of the Georgian troops, and the leader had to "cough" them. These were the Kokoevs and, as the Ossetians say: "they are a small nation, among them there are no namesakes, but only relatives." Many of these relatives, according to Caucasian tradition, held leadership positions under the presidency of Eduard Kokoity.

The politician was awarded orders from other partially recognized republics - Abkhazia and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. I have always been fond of sports - my favorite freestyle wrestling and football. In his free time, he enjoys fishing or hunting.