On March 18, 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov signed the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of South Ossetia on Alliance and Integration. According to the Kremlin’s press release, “[u]nder the Agreement, the two countries will establish a common defence and security space, allow free movement across the Russia-South Ossetia border, integrate their customs services, develop cooperation between their interior ministries, and simplify the procedures for obtaining Russian citizenship.” The twenty-five year agreement includes the possibility of extension and “also covers the social dimension, including pensions.” According to one report, Georgia, from which South Ossetia broke in the 1990s, denounced the agreement as “destructive” and undermining its territorial integrity. In official statements, the United States dismissed it as not “constitu[ting] a valid international agreement” and the European Union described it as a violation of “Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, principles of international law and the international commitments taken by the Russian Federation.”