TIRASPOL BELIEVES MODEL OF RELATIONS WITH MOLDOVA IS TO BE DETERMINED BY TRANSNISTRIAN PEOPLE

“A final model of building relations with Moldova is to be determined by the Transnistrian people”. Such opinion was expressed by the Transnistrian ministry of foreign affairs in its commentary on the recent sayings by Russian Senator Vladimir Jabarov concerning the history of the Transnistrian conflict and perspectives of its settlement.

The Transnistrian MFA believes that the Russian officials’ growing interest to the current situation of the Moldova-Transnistria relations will promote the solution of many current problems that presently restrict the rights and interests of the Transnistrian population, “of whom over 220 thousand are citizens of the Russian Federation”.

“The choice in favor of our republic’s independence and of unity with Russia, made by the Transnistrian people at an all-republican referendum in 2006, was the only possible one in the conditions when Chisinau was torpedoing Russian conflict-settlement initiatives, ruining the international negotiation mechanism and imposing an economic blockade on Transnistria”, said the ministerial commentary.

The official Tiraspol believes that the situation of the Moldova-Transnistria conflict settlement has substantially deteriorated lately because Moldova would not fulfill earlier-reached agreements, refuses to sign the Final Protocol of the 5+2 Conference held in Bratislava in October, and because Chisinau has created new problems in the banking sphere, in imports and land-using questions.

Despite all these problems, Tiraspol is convinced that there is no alternative to dialog in the current international format [of 5+2], and that there are no other ways to improving citizens’ life except achieving concrete decisions and their meticulous observance.

On Tuesday, during the Moscow-Chisinau video bridge organized by the Sputnik-Moldova information agency, Vladimir Jabarov, the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Federation’s Standing Committee for International Affairs, stated that the Transnistrian problem must be resolved by two sides – Tiraspol and Chisinau.

In his opinion, the two sides of the Transnistrian conflict ought to reach an agreement and “to create a country with a common border and with a free movement of persons and goods, no matter what form the country will have – a federation or not”.

“I cannot see any principal reasons why Transnistria should divorce Moldova, because this would only weaken both banks of the Dniester River. If even in the 1990s, after the conflict, there were a lot of negative moments and all of them were eventually resolved, presently there should be no obstacle to cooperation of the sides”, stated Russian senator Vladimir Jabarov.