He was Minister of Internal Affairs in the de facto government of South Ossetia, a breakaway entity in Georgia, from 2005 to 2008, including throughout the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted him for war crimes against Georgian civilians and issued an arrest warrant in 2022.
When hostilities broke out in South Ossetia in August 2008, Mindzaev remained in the region and accused the Georgian government for the state of war.
[3] Local Ossetian media reported that Mindzaev was granted the title of Hero of Russia in 2009, but the Russian news outlet Izvestia was unable to verify the claim.
[3] In 2022, the International Criminal Court investigation concluded that, during the 2008 war, Mindzaev "intentionally and knowingly perpetrated or otherwise contributed to alleged war crimes" committed against ethnic Georgians, including unlawful confinement, torture, and hostage taking.