Press
MOSCOW WANTS TO SHOW IT CAN SETTLE CONFLICTS PEACEFULLY – KOMMERSANT
Moscow, September 4, 2008 (Infotag). Having recognized the two Caucasus republics [South Ossetia and Abkhazia], Moscow has simultaneously decided to demonstrate to the world on the example of Transnistria that it is capable of resolving territorial conflicts by using political means, the influential Kommersant newspaper of Moscow wrote on Thursday.
The paper wrote that one and a half hours was enough for President Medvedev to dissuade Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov from continuing his struggle for independence of Transnistria.
“Russia has already got a plan of actions in the Transnistria direction, and the meetings President Medvedev held with Voronin and Smirnov recently were elements of this plan were”, the publication said.
“Whereas Voronin was ready from the very beginning to help Moscow earn the laurels of a peacekeeper, Igor Smirnov had to be pressed on to achieve this. Smirnov did a lot of sharp statements lately, so we had to engage all our leverage to tune him into a constructive key. We explained him that his possibilities for maneuvering are extremely limited. We reminded him that his republic owes US$1.5 billion for Russian natural gas, and hinted at his machinations with the Russian humanitarian assistance that came to the Transnistrian region previously”, Kommersant quoted a Kremlin source close to the negotiations.
The newspaper further wrote, “The Tiraspol leader was not solely intimidated. He was also promised a generous compensation for his tractability. In particular, he was promised that Moscow would extent to Transnistria all-Russia programs in the fields of education and health and would solve the question of direct payment of pensions from Russian sources for Russian Federation citizens residing permanently in the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic”.
According to data available with Kommersant, Voronin and Smirnov must first hold a bilateral meeting and then, in Dmitry Medvedev’s presence, must sign a Joint Statement on the main principles of Transnistrian conflict settlement. After that, the process will be launched of working out a special legal status for the Transnistrian region and of drafting an international legal document that would fix the permanent military-political neutrality of Moldova and – chiefly – its non-accession to NATO.
Kommersant presumes Chisinau is ready to agree to this and to make a whole number of further concessions to Tiraspol. The newspaper quoted a high-ranked source from the Voronin’s surrounding as saying, “We agree to a guaranteed status for Transnistria, to their preserving their own state power, constitution, legislative initiative. They will also preserve the right to secede from Moldova if it loses its incumbent international legal status”.
Kommersant remarked, “It is noteworthy that Moscow is not going to solve the Transnistria problem all by itself. After the historic meeting of Vladimir Voronin and Igor Smirnov takes place in the presence of Dmitry Medvedev, the negotiation process will be brought back into the 5+2 format currently frozen. The West will thus be also involved in the conflict settlement work, but with the guiding role played by Moscow. Already on September 8 the negotiators from Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE, the U.S.A. and the European Union will meet in Vienna to discuss how to reconcile Chisinau with Tiraspol”.
