Marat Kambolov

Marat Arkadyevich Kambolov (; ) is a South Ossetian civil servant currently serving as the Prime Minister of the Republic of South Ossetia. Since 23 June 2026, he has also been serving as acting President of the Republic of South Ossetia.

Biography Kambolov was born on 2 January 1965, in the village of Khaznidon, Irafsky District, North Ossetia. He graduated from the Gorsky Agricultural Institute[ ru] in Vladikavkaz in 1988 and earned additional degrees from the Moscow State Social University and the Russian Academy of Public Administration. He also worked for the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Rapid political rise On 25 May 2026, the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Ossetia signed a treaty on deeper integration, which included a provision that any Russian citizen can hold elected office in South Ossetia, and vice versa.

Gagloyev then appointed Kambolov as his adviser on 'the implementation of the integration deal between South Ossetia and Russia' on 27 May. On 8 June 2026, the incumbent South Ossetian Prime Minister, Dzambolyt Tadtayev, dismissed his cabinet and resigned at Gagloyev's request, who stated his intention to replace him with Kambolov.

Kambolov's first act as prime minister was to give a speech to the Parliament of the Republic of South Ossetia stating that he would base his new cabinet picks around demographics, arguing that South Ossetia's rapid population decline was the republic's single greatest issue. The next presidential elections are scheduled for 18 September 2026, there is a requirement that a candidate must have permanently resided in South Ossetia for the last 10 years before the date of registration. This would invalidate Kambolov from running, but he has been endorsed by all major South Ossetian political parties who hold 25 out of 34 deputies in the Parliament of South Ossetia (Nykhas , United Ossetia , Communist Party of South Ossetia and People's Party ) as well as former Presidents of South Ossetia (Lyudvig Chibirov , Leonid Tibilov and Anatoly Bibilov ), so it is widely anticipated that this law will be changed to allow him to run.