TSKHINVALI, Georgia, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- The self-proclaimed president of a breakaway republic of Georgia broke off talks with Russian authorities and said she'd be inaugurated during the weekend.
Education Minister Alla Dzhioyeva claimed victory in presidential elections in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia. She did so despite a court annulment of the election that followed a runoff vote showing Kremlin-backed Emergency Minister Anatoly Bibilov apparently lost the vote.
Dzhioyeva broke off talks with incumbent leader Eduard Kokoity and called on Moscow to send in a mediator who "would present an objective view" on the situation in the breakaway republic to the Kremlin, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.
She said she would be inaugurated during the weekend "on the street." Kokoity, she added, should be prosecuted for "serious violations of law."
Russia and Georgia went to war briefly in 2008 over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway republic. NATO said it doesn't recognize the political ambitions of either of Georgia's breakaway regions.
