South Ossetia signs agreement with Nicaragua on visa-free travel for government officials

South Ossetia and Nicaragua have signed a ‘visa-free travel agreement’ for government officials, but it is unknown when the changes will come into effect.

On Thursday, the South Ossetian Foreign Ministry stated the agreement occurred following a meeting in Moscow between Foreign Minister Akhsar Dzhioev and Nicaragua’s Ambassador to South Ossetia, Alba Azucena Torres Mejía.

‘During the meeting, the parties signed an Agreement between [...] South Ossetia and [...] Nicaragua on the mutual waiver of visa formalities for holders of diplomatic, official, service and foreign passports’, the statement said.

At the meeting in Moscow, the parties discussed ‘aspects of relations between the two friendly countries and ways to strengthen and develop them, as well as current international events’.

In 2008, Nicaragua became the first country after Russia to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the month after the 2008 August War.

In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that following the 2008 August War, Russia had exercised ‘effective control’ over Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The tribunal also found Russia in breach of several articles of the European Convention of Human Rights in connection to the war.

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According to RFE/RL, holders of Abkhazian and South Ossetian passports can stay in Nicaragua without a visa for up to 90 days.

Nicaragua and Russia — friends, allies, partners in autocracy

On Wednesday, the UN urged the international community to respond to what it called human rights violations by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government as it seeks to further consolidate power.

‘The Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua found that the regime of President Daniel Ortega and [his wife and co-president] Rosario Murillo, has deliberately transformed the country into an authoritarian state where no independent institutions remain, opposition voices are silenced, and the population — both inside and outside Nicaragua — faces persecution, forced exile, and economic retaliation’.

Nicaragua is also one of the Russian government’s most active supporters. After Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, Nicaragua quickly supported the decisions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Ortega government was one of the first to recognise Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and Nicaragua has routinely voted against UN resolutions condemning Russian aggression.

For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

South Ossetia tops list of Russia’s ‘friendliest’ neighbours

The list was compiled by the state-run National Research Institute for the Development of Communication and ranks all post-Soviet countries.

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