The 2011 South Ossetia election protests, also known as the Snow Revolution (), were mass protests in the partially recognized country of the Republic of South Ossetia in 2011. Protests were held due to rejection of the Supreme Court's decision to cancel the results of the presidential elections in which Alla Dzhioyeva won. Her supporters demanded the resignation of the government and the admission of Dzhioyeva to the next elections. The result was the resignation of President Eduard Kokoity and re-elections in 2012.
Dzhioeva was fired from her post as education minister in 2008 on charges of fraud. The criminal prosecution continued until 2010, when the Supreme Court found her guilty and fined her 120,000 rubles... She appealed and claimed that the criminal case was politically motivated.
The Central Election Commission of the Republic of South Ossetia officially refused to register the candidacy of Dzhambolat Tedeyev, citing the residency requirement, according to which a presidential candidate must have permanently resided in the Republic for the past 10 years. After this, Tedeyev's supporters tried to influence the Central Election Commission of the Republic by force. They attempted to storm the building. A crowd of about 150 people tried to break into the parliament building, where the Central Election Commission is also located, demanding that Tedeyev be immediately registered as a presidential candidate. The people who entered the building were forced out onto the street by security and riot police. The building's security opened fire in the air. The authorities considered the incident an attempt to seize the Central Election Commission. Arrests began. Tedeev, who was accused of organizing the riots, went to his father's house in the center of Tskhinvali, and several dozen local residents sympathizing with him surrounded the house to prevent riot police from entering if the authorities decided to storm it. Famous athletes went from Russia to Ossetia to support Tedeyev. They were not allowed in, after which border traffic with the Russian Federation was completely stopped (it will be restored on October 3). The Minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko expressed concern about the current situation and said that the Ministry would send people to Ossetia so that the head of the Russian national freestyle wrestling team could arrive safely in the capital. Tedeyev himself welcomed the fact that the Russian Government had decided to stand up for him.
After this, he refused to participate in the elections and instead supported the opposition candidacy of Alla Dzhioyeva.
Based on the results of the first round, the candidates from the current president, Anatoly Bibilov (24.86%) and Alla Dzhioeva (24.80%), advanced to the second round. In the second round, Alla won with 57.95%. But the Unity Party had no intention of handing over power to a non-government candidate and was determined to remove AllaâÂÂs candidacy at any cost. The party nomenklatura, claiming that Dzhioeva's campaign had used illegal methods to secure victory, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court seeking to hand the victory to their candidate. The court subsequently declared the election invalid. Re-elections were called. But this did not please her supporters, who recognized her as a legally elected president and considered the holding of new elections to be lawless. This illegal court decision became the reason for the protests.