Taymuraz Mamsurov  

(13.04.1954) 

Head of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia. 

Taymuraz Mamsurov was born in Beslan and went to that the school which later on in 2004 was seized by terrorists with approximately 1200 children and adulats taken hostages.  

He graduated from North Caucasian State Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in 1976 as a civil engineer.  

Taymuraz Mamsurov was put forward for the leadership by Russian President Vladimir Putin and approved by the North Ossetian republic's parliament after the resignation of Aleksandr Dzasokhov in June 2005.  

He is a leading member of the North Ossetian branch of United Russia and is regarded as a staunch Kremlin loyalist.  

He had been chairman of the republic's parliament since 2000 and was Head of its government for two years before that.  

Mr Dzasokhov, president since 1998, was heavily criticized in the republic over the North Ossetian authorities' failure to prevent bloodshed in the September 2004 Beslan school siege, in which Taymuraz Mamsurov’s son and daughter were amongst the hostages.  

He has spoken of the people of North and South Ossetia as an "integral whole" and issued a joint statement with his South Ossetian counterpart on boosting links.  

T.Mamsurov: "The planned World United Ossetian Congress is of great importance to Ossetian people. It will not only demonstrate the unification of Ossetian people, but the unification of Ossetian people will start from this Congress".