Chelyabinsk Region was Russia’s first province to sign a cooperation agreement with South Ossetia.

The region’s official delegates, headed by Deputy Governor Valentin Buravlev, visited South Ossetia last week. First Deputy Head of Law-Enforcement and Military Authorities Cooperation Unit Nikolai Yarovoy, Head of the region’s student squads HQ Sergey Goryshkin, and Deputy GD of Chelyaboblinveststroy Vladimir Nickel were among the delegates. The group signed an official cooperation agreement involving the Government of Chelyabinsk Region and the Government of South Ossetia. The agreement provides for bilateral cooperation in the socio-economic fields like business, healthcare, education, and cultural development, the spokesperson for the Governor of Chelyabinsk Region reports.

In the course of their two-day visit, the Russian officials made a tour of Tskhinvali, the republic’s capital city that was most tangibly damaged in the war.

Chelyabinsk Region’s officials had actually promised to restore some of the city’s socially important objects before. While in Tskhinvali, they decided on three buildings: a village school, an art school, and a kindergarten. The final decision will be made after Ossetia’s Construction Ministry provides Chelyabinsk Region’s experts with the projects. The thing is, the Caucasus Mountains are proverbial for being earthquake-prone, and the Ural builders just don’t have enough expertise.

In the meantime, South Ossetia keeps getting humanitarian aid from Chelyabinsk Region’s dwellers. Four out of eighteen cars loaded with food and building materials have already arrived in Tskhinvali. The region’s population collected 30 million RUR in terms of aid in one and a half months since the war started.