Anatoly Bibilov

Bibilov was born in the South Ossetian AO of the Georgian SSR in the Soviet Union.[1] After eight grade he went to a boarding school in Tbilisi with intensive military and physical training, thereafter he joined the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School.[1] After graduating, Bibilov was distributed to the 76th Guards Air Assault Division. His division was included in the consolidated battalion of peacekeepers in South Ossetia. Subsequently he joined the South Ossetian Army,[1] commanding a special forces unit. Between the period 1998-2008 he rejoined the peacekeeping forces, this time in a North Ossetia battalion. Bibilov took an active part in the 2008 South Ossetian war, organizing the defence of one of the districts of Tskhinvali against the Georgian Armed Forces.[1]

In October 2008 he was appointed Minister of Emergency Situations of South Ossetia. Bibilov was the presidential candidate for the Unity Party in the South Ossetian presidential election, 2011.[1] He won the first round, but lost the runoff to Alla Dzhioyeva.

Soon however, the parliament of South Ossetia declared the elections invalid.[2] Leonid Tibilov was ultimately elected president after winning the South Ossetian presidential election, 2012 which Bibilov didn't participate in.[1] In June 2014 he was elected as the president of the parliament of South Ossetia. He is currently the head of the United Ossetia party, which nominated him for their candidate to the South Ossetian presidential election, 2017.[3] Bibilov won the election in the first round by getting 54.8% of the vote and took office as the 4th president of South Ossetia on the 21 April 2017.[4][5] During his inauguration, delegations from the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and Russia were present.[6]

Bibilov at the 2020 Moscow Victory Day Parade on Red Square.

Bibilov supports South Ossetia joining the Russian Federation.[7][8]