Russian Post to strengthen postal ties with South Ossetia

Russian Post is to set up a new international postal exchange to allow regular mail links to resume with the disputed region of South Ossetia. Three years on this week from Russia’s diplomatic recognition of the breakaway region as an independent state, after the 2008 South Ossetian war with Georgia, Russian Post said current arrangements for delivering mail to South Ossetia “is not working”.

The Post said routing mail through Georgia was difficult, and current arrangements in North Ossetia made services overly complex.

Instead, Russian Post will invest 30m rubles (about $1m USD) to establish a new exchange in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, allowing a more direct service for residents in South Ossetia to regularly receive mail from Russia.

South Ossetia is considered a region of Georgia by the Georgian government, but three years ago this week, following conflict with Georgia, it was recognised diplomatically as an independent nation by a handful of countries including Russia.

Relationships

Russian Post officials met this week with representatives of South Ossetia’s post and telegraph service in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali to discuss the plans and a potential bilateral agreement between them.

Konstantin Yakunin, Head of Russian Post’s operations division, said: “Creating a full-fledged international postal exchange with South Ossetia will allow residents in the republic to have a full postal service.

“We intend to build relationships with the South Ossetian postal service as a full postal administration. Certainly, Russian Post will have the necessary counterparts to help organize a stable mail service in the country.”

Along with closer postal links, Russian Post said it has agreed for its South Ossetian partner to join its postal order network, allowing for money orders to be exchanged by people in South Ossetia through terminals connected to Russia’s unified system.