TBILISI, Georgia, Jan. 23 -- A minister who claimed victory over the Kremlin favorite in voting in a breakaway republic of Georgia said she wouldn't take part in March elections.

South Ossetia's Education Minister Alla Dzhioyeva claimed a win in November over Kremlin-backed incumbent Eduard Kokoity, though the republic's court annulled the results late last year, saying the vote was flawed by fraud. Kokoity appointed Vadim Brovtsev to head the republic until rescheduled March elections.

Dzhioyeva, who claimed a "shattering victory" in the election, said she wasn't taking part in presidential elections
rescheduled for March.

"The election will be illegitimate and I will not take part in it," she was quoted by Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying.

She added, however, that if Brovtsev didn't resign, she would arrange for her own inauguration at an unspecified date.

Russia and Georgia went to war briefly in 2008 over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway republic. NATO said it doesn't recognize the political ambitions of either of Georgia's breakaway regions.

Moscow said last year after heated debates over plans for a European missile defense system that its 2008 war with Georgia prevented NATO from expanding eastward.

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