David Georgievich Sanakoev[a][b] (born 14 December 1976) is an Ossetian separatist, indicted war criminal, politician, diplomat, and international fugitive, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Ossetia from 2012 to 2015, during the presidency of Leonid Tibilov.

Sanakoev has been deemed responsible for the illegal kidnapping and imprisonment of 110 Georgian civilians, mostly children and the elderly, of which 27 were confirmed to have died due to neglect and poor conditions, with another 38 missing to this day.

He campaigned on a platform of government reform, wishing to sever ties between the government and big business, creating directly elected district heads, and make ministerial positions be held accountable to parliament[5] He advanced to the second round after narrowly beating Moscow-backed Dmitry Medoyev with 6,627 votes to Medoyev's 6,415, making the election the first without a Russia-endorsed candidate.

After this incident, Sanakoev was labeled as "nationalist" and "pro-Georgian" by Valery Kaziyev, then head of the Communist Party of South Ossetia.

[14] Sanakoev remained a member of parliament for Nykhaz until 11 April 2024, when he was one of the founders of the newly formed party For Justice alongside two other MPs, Harry Muldarov and Dzambolyt Medoev.

[15] The group would be joined by two more MPs, Andrei Maldzihov and Amiran Diakonov, as well as the controversial former leader of the Leningor district Soslan Gabaraev.

"[16] On 24 June 2022, Sanakoev was indicted by the International Criminal Court due to his aforementioned detention of 110 ethnically Georgian civilians, mostly consisting of elderly women and children.

Combined with the fact the poor conditions he placed them under resulted in the proven deaths of at least 27 of them, the ICC found that he violated article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.