Monitoring→Politics→Transnistrian Conflict

On 29 June the Moldovan delegation to the Joint Control Commission (JCC) presented to the mediators, the OSCE Mission and the Russian and Ukrainian Foreign Ministries a series of proposals on stabilising the situation in the security zone. Chisinau’s proposals envisage evacuation of the Transnistrian customs and border guard points from the security zone, ensuring normal conditions of activity for the JCC’s operative investigation group from Bender, for the Moldovan Latin script schools, the penitentiary institutions from Bender, media institutions, railways and auto transport enterprises, etc. Moldova also proposed that by 15 July the auto traffic on the bridge near Gura Bicului is resumed and that the unrestricted access of the JCC military observers to military units in the security zone is ensured. Moreover, the Moldovan side proposed that any object in the security zone may be inspected under OSCE aegis.

Chisinau’s proposals will be discussed at the JCC meeting on 7 July. If the JCC co-chairs accept them and adopt a document in this sense, the Moldovan side will resume its participation in the JCC work, which it suspended on 19 April 2005.

Meanwhile Tiraspol fulfilled one of Chisinau’s requirements by registering on 4 July four out of the eight Moldovan Latin script schools from the region. The schools were registered as private educational institutions teaching in the Romanian language. We would like to remind that in the autumn 2004 the schools were registered temporarily after the Transnistrian authorities had declared them illegal, for which reason the Moldovan side suspended its participation in the five-sided talks and introduced a series of economic measures intended to legalise the Transnistrian enterprises and qualified by the break away authorities as “economic blockade”.

On the other hand, on 1 July the representatives of the Moldovan and Ukrainian customs and border services signed an agreement on setting up the first two joint customs check points, in Briceni and Reni, in line with the provisions of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Organisation of Joint Controls at the customs check points signed earlier by the Moldovan and Ukrainian presidents. According to this agreement, by 10 July five joint check points will be set up, of which two will be placed on the Transnistrian segment of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. The setting up of joint Moldovan-Ukrainian check points is considered by Chisinau as a key measure for the fight against contraband activities through Transnistria, which is a prime source of income sustaining the anticonstitutional regime in Tiraspol.

However, the event most widely covered both in the Moldovan and in the Transnistrian press in the past two weeks has been the visit to Moldova of the Moscow official Modest Kolerov, the Head of the Department for Inter-regional and Cultural Relations with Foreign States under the Russian President Administration, a structure created recently and whose aim is to protect Russia’s interests and the interests of Russian citizens in the post-Soviet areal. In Chisinau, Kolerov did not meet with any officials, but just with representatives of the media and some pro-Russian political parties, with whom he reportedly discussed the situation of Russian citizens living in Moldova. In Tiraspol, however, Kolerov met with the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov, members of the security bodies, representatives of the Congress of Russian Communities, as well as with representatives of the Corporation Proriv — a movement of so-called non-governmental organisations supported by the Transnistrian security forces. In Tiraspol Kolerov proclaimed the beginning of a new stage in the Russian-Transnistrian relations, and during his meeting with Igor Smirnov he said that Russia is “extremely interested in the stability and success, both in political and economic terms, of the Moldovan Transnistrian Republic”. Kolerov’s statements have been interpreted in Chisinau as in recognition of the independence and statehood of the Transnistrian region by an official representative of the Kremlin, and the Moldovan Foreign Ministry convoked the Russian Ambassador to Moldova on this occasion. A few days later, Kolerov said in Moscow within an international forum that the issue of recognition of the sovereignty of self-proclaimed republics is at present of key and principle importance and needs to be resolved.

As Russian Duma deputies have constantly shown support for the self-proclaimed Transnistrian regime, it was the first time that a representative of the Russian executive made such declarations, contrary to the official line taken by President Putin who supports Moldovan Government’s efforts to solve the Transnistrian conflict. Observers have interpreted Kolerov’s visit to Moldova, which coincided with Russia’s withdrawal from its border agreements with Estonia, as one of symbolic significance denoting a new, tougher policy of the Russian Federation towards the former Soviet republics. This policy is said to be a reaction to the colour revolutions from the CIS and the subsequent reorientation towards the West of these states, and aims to restore Russia’s hegemonic position in the CIS. It seems however, that by supporting anti-constitutional entities like Transnistria, Russia does a disservice in the first place to its co-nationals, who along with the rest of Transnistrian residents are the victims of an illegal and authoritarian regime. At the same time, such tactics will but push Moldova farther away from Russia and fuel the anti-Russian feelings in Moldova — both bad news for the Russian nationals living here.

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