Monitoring→Politics→Transnistrian Conflict

Immediate impact of President Voronin’s meeting with Transnistrian leader

The April 11, 2008 meeting of President Vladimir Voronin and Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov was followed by a series of important events which took place with a certain regularity and frequency worthy of being noticed. On April 14, Odessa hosted consultations with the participation of Minister of Reintegration Vasile Sova and Tiraspol foreign minister Valeriy Litskai. They preceded a seminar on building mutual confidence between the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria in the area of economy and environment held in Odessa on April 15 under the OSCE auspices, with the participation of EU Special Representative to Moldova Kalman Mizsei, the head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Philip Remler, and the ambassador with special missions of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Valeri Nesterushkin. The debates focussed on restoration and facilitation of railway communication, normalisation of economic and commercial relations between the two banks of the Dniester. Transnistrian representatives told the seminar that the reactivation of previous agreements (signed before August 2001) would help strengthening the confidence between the sides. They denied statements by Chisinau that customs control measures introduced after March 3, 2006 help promoting exports from Transnistria. They claimed that Transnistrian commodities undergo a double customs control and the restricted railroads mark up the Transnistrian exports very much. A day later, on April 16, Odessa hosted consultations of participants in the “5+2” negotiations. They agreed that five expert groups co-opted from both banks of the Dniester to start negotiations on economy and trade, infrastructure development, social area and healthcare, humanitarian aid, environment and agriculture. On April 17, the EU special representative to Moldova, Kalman Mizsei, told a meeting with Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov that the EU is ready to assist joint projects which would eventually result from activity of working groups of Chisinau and Tiraspol. The same day, representatives of bilateral working groups met in Bender. Minister of Reintegration Vasile Sova and Transnistrian foreign minister Valeriy Litkai coordinate the bilateral working groups. Moldovan heads of each group are deputy ministers. It was generally decided that the working groups will meet periodically.

In spite of the rapid start of consultations, it was concluded after a week that fast progresses are impossible. The first failure was the impossibility to resume the ordinary railway traffic via Transnistria. Tiraspol said that a benevolence step by Chisinau would be to resume the traffic of the Chisinau-Odessa passenger train via Transnistria and reciprocal renunciation to transit taxes by the sides. This issue will be discussed again later. The Tiraspol administration has heard members of working groups on behalf of Transnistria and established that Chisinau is intransigent, wishing to promote own solutions and ignoring Transnistrian proposals. The Transnistrian propaganda has made an effort to explain people Russia’s new approaches of the Transnistrian problem by the wish to promote solutions capable “to keep all Moldova, not only Transnistria under control.”

Previous and recent experience shows that the consolidation of confidence between Chisinau and Tiraspol depends much on President Voronin’s relations with Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov. The quality of these relations was revealed in an April 25 interview with President Voronin, who delivered curious statements^[1]:

• We do not want, we have never wanted and we will unlikely want to see Igor Smirnov, but should this be opportune for the state, I will negotiate with the devil inclusively;
• Promises made by PCRM in 2001 to quickly settle the conflict have encountered interests of former ruling elites from Moldova and Transnsitria. “Now we are defusing the economic and political field that one has mined before us very ingeniously and for perspective”;
• Transnistrian circles “had sold rocket and aircraft installations together with Transnistria, they had sold other weapons, too.” “They were covering weapon boxes with sand and were carrying them by boats to Odessa and then to hot areas of the CIS and across the world. One will ever tell these episodes again”;
• Moldova had to convince the world community, particularly Russia and Ukraine in the past years to set up a border control;
• “Once we go closer to the resolution of the Transnistrian problem, Romania is becoming hysterical while Basescu is spitting out what he can and how he can.” “Nine intelligence services of Romania are working to suppress our initiatives. I think that not everybody knows that Romania had imposed Snegur to start the Dniester war”;
• Putin has an absolute role in redressing Russian-Moldovan relations. “I am glad to have had found a common language and way to settle the conflict. Perhaps many have noticed that the State Duma has recognised the necessity of reunifying Moldova, when it discussed the Abkhazian and Ossetian problems”;
• “We have to help Transnistrians who have been under the umbrella of separatism for many years.” More than 300,000 Transnistrian residents have been issued acts of Moldovan citizens;
• About 500 Transnistrian economic agents have been introduced in the official record of Moldova;
• Exports from Transnistria have grown by 30 percent last year;
• Finding a final resolution of the Transnistrian conflict is a very difficult task, but resuming the “5+2” negotiation process is a tangible duty for the nearest future.

Finally, the following key accomplishments in “building confidence” between the two banks of the Dniester in the second half of April may be noted:

• Consultations within five working groups which will meet periodically;
• Confirmed support of the E.U., U.S., Russia and OSCE for the resumption of the Chisinau-Tiraspol dialogue;
• Minister of reintegration has met E.U., U.S., OSCE and Russian representatives and reconfirmed the plans of Moldovan authorities to demand the lifting of the E.U. and U.S. travel restrictions;
• A delegation from the Moldovan Church headed by the archbishop of Dubasari and Tiraspol, Iustian, a known admirer of the Transnistrian regime, has brought the Holy Fire from Jerusalem on the eve of the Easter for the religious service at the Nasterea Domnului Cathedral in Chisinau.

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