for the South Ossetian side". On 6 December, the OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana adopted a resolution supporting the Georgian peace plan. Prior to the Ministerial Council, the Russian Foreign Ministry rejected the Georgian plan, saying it differed from the plan Saakashvili presented at the UN General Assembly in September 2004, which was favoured by the South Ossetian side. After the OSCE resolution, the South Ossetian side surprised many with their own initiative reminiscent to the Georgian plan, triggering optimism in Tbilisi. Government According to Article 47 of the South Ossetian Constitution, the president of the Republic of South Ossetia is the head of state and head of the executive branch of government. The president of the republic is elected for five years by direct popular vote, with a maximum of two consecutive terms for the same person. South Ossetia's legislative body is the unicameral parliament, which consists of 34 members who are elected by popular vote for five years in a mixed system of 17 single-member constituencies and 17 delegates elected through proportional representation (article 57). Since 24 May 2022, Alan Gagloev has been the president of the republic, winning the contested election of the then incumbent Anatoly Bibilov. Military South Ossetia's armed forces in 2017 were partially incorporated into the Russian Armed Forces. The Russian armed forces have established the 4th Guards Military Base in South Ossetia, which is based in Tskhinvali, with training sites north from the city (Dzartsem) and near Java, where a branch of the base is hosted at the village Ugardanta for the Russian Airborne Forces. Furthermore, Russia has established nearly 20 so called "militarized border guard bases" near the boundary line with Tbilisi controlled Georgia, which fall under the command and responsibility of the Russian FSB and are tasked with enforcing a "state border" between South Ossetia and Georgia. An estimated 3,000–3,500 Russian servicemen are deployed in South Ossetia, while an estimated 1,500 FSB personnel are deployed at the border guard bases. According to South Ossetian de facto authorities, about 450 South Ossetian citizens are employed at the 4th Russian Military Base. On 26 March 2022, president Bibilov said that South Ossetia had sent troops to aid Russia during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, stating his troops "understand perfectly that they are going to defend Russia, they are going to defend Ossetia too". A large fraction of these troops would desert and