Transnistrian Conflict on March 17–31, 2009

Barvikha Declaration from 18 March 2009

On March 18, 2009, the city of Barvikha near Moscow hosted a meeting of Russian and Moldovan Presidents Dmitri Medvedev and Vladimir Voronin, with the participation of Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov. It ended with the signing of a joint declaration released by the Russian Foreign Ministry. It says that the “leaderships of the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria”, parties of the conflict, have met in Barvikha in the presence of the Russian Federation’s President. The goal of the meeting was to strengthen efforts for settling the Transnistrian conflict through peaceful political methods only. The participants in the meeting agreed on the following clauses:

The parties will keep direct contacts with the view to rouse the political negotiation process;
The parties will stir up the efforts of expert groups aimed to consolidate the confidence-building measures in the social-economic and humanitarian areas;
The parties confirm the importance of “permanent consultations on political issues within the Transnistria settlement negotiation process” (“5+2” format) and will make conditions to resume the works in this format as soon as possible, wished for the first half of 2009. The parties call upon all participants in the “5+2” format to contribute to making favourable conditions in this regard;
The parties note the stabilizing role of the acting peacekeeping mission from the region and regards as grounded its transformation into a peace guaranteeing operation under the OSCE aegis after the Transnistrian settlement;
The parties express gratitude to the Russian Federation for its mediation efforts aimed at a plenary Transnistrian settlement.

Transnistrian leader about meaning of the Barvikha Declaration

On March 23, 2009, Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov disclosed the ins and outs of the Barvikha Declaration, in an interviewRU with the Moscow-based newspaper “Nezavisimaia Gazeta”. According to Smirnov, Russia’s positions in the Transnistrian region have consolidated and this will facilitate the integration of the region into Russia. The Transnistrian problem will be shortly discussed within the Russian Security Council. In this regard, Smirnov also revealed some facts about the signing and contents of the Barvikha Declaration. In particular, he said that:

Voronin expressed an increased interest for the Transnistrian problem from electoral reasons, while strengthening the Russian factor in the region is important for Transnistria. Even more, Russia gave 40,000 tons of crude oil to Moldova with regard to the signing of the Declaration and President Dmitri Medvedev instructed the Government to find possibilities to release a 200-million-dollar credit to the Transnistrian region;
Point 1 of the Declaration says that Transnistria negotiates with Moldova, not with the European Union and United States, which have a single purpose — to eliminate Russia from the region, but this is impossible because 135,000 Transnistrians are already Russian citizens;
Point 4 of the Declaration says very clear that there is no way to pull out the Russian military from the region any longer. The current peacekeeping mission will be transformed only after the conflict resolution. The status quo towards the Russian military presence will be maintained in the event the conflict is unsettled;
Moldova will never reunify since Transnistria has other ideals. There is no way to reunify the two banks of the Dniester but to normalize the relations between two neighboring states;
Moldova and Transnistria must be treated as equal parties like it happens since 1994, when the negotiations started. In this respect, Tiraspol has elaborated a system of guarantees which the equal parties Moldova and Transnistria will delegate to the guarantors Russia and Ukraine to ensure the honoring of agreements including previous treaties;
Ukraine should not revolt itself because Russia has a more active conduct in the Transnistrian settlement process, it shall be active, too. Statements by EU representative Kalman Mizsei that the EU will not recognise agreements reached in the “2+1” format are inopportune. In general, “who is he for Transnistria? Nobody, a nonentity.”
Transnistria negotiates with Moldova only, negotiations guaranteed by Russia, nobody else. Russia guarantees the life of people from the region. She has assumed all social expenses. The Transnistrian banking system is maintained by Russia’s. The 200 million dollars which Transnistria is due to receive from Russia will be used as circulating financial resources, so that enterprises from the region, mainly owned by Russia, will be able to operate and pay salaries;
Transnistria’s future is beside Russia, Transnistria will be a Russian region;
Relations with Medvedev are better than were with Putin. Resetting Russia-US relations envisages the recognition of Transnistria as Russia’s area of influence, which means recognition of Russia’s right to watch and influence developments in the post-Soviet area. Russian scenarios shall be taken into consideration seriously. Medvedev hinted this to Saakashvili: the one who will defy Russian interests will be punished. Russia has confirmed this in the last 18 years.

Draft “agreement concerning guarantees of Transnistrian settlement”

Following the March 18, 2009 meeting in Moscow, Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov has delivered to President Vladimir Voronin the draft “agreement concerning the system of guarantees for the Moldovan-Transnistrian settlement”. According to the draft, Moldova and Transnistria are equal parties of the conflict; Russia and Ukraine are guarantors, while the OSCE is a guardian of the agreement. The draft agreement stipulates the following:

The conflicting parties, guarantors and the OSCE call for mandatory international legal guarantees of the Transnistrian settlement;
The conflict parties and guarantors make necessary conditions for the honouring of agreements, including previous treaties, in particular on resolution of social-economic, humanitarian problems, etc.;
The peacekeeping mechanism introduced in 1992 will be maintained. The parties will not collect taxes from each other, except for the fees for protection of domestic market; will not revise the ownership on estates from territory of each other; will not obstruct the export of goods and transit, etc.;
The guarantors will take necessary actions to prevent the violation of this agreement.

Transnistrian propaganda about Romanian danger

Transnistria’s mouthpiece published on March 16, on the eve of the March 18, 2009 meeting in Moscow between Presidents Medvedev and Voronin and Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov, a communication by the presidium of the coordinating council of public organisations and Transnistrian parties, which says that causes of the war in the region were not remedied yet, as ruling circles from Moldova keep promoting the policy on political, economic and ethno-cultural accession to Romania. Arguments to these facts would be:

The promotion of the idea on the common Moldovan-Romanian history;
The fusion of markets and economies of Moldova and Romania;
The identity of legislation, state symbols and financial systems of Moldova and Romania;
The replacement of the Cyrillic-script Moldovan language (and its further liquidation) with the Latin-script Romanian language;
The lack of a basic treaty between Moldova and Romania, which means in fact the non-recognition of Moldova by Romania and territorial claims against Moldova;
The existence of joint Moldovan-Romanian governmental and parliamentary commissions;
The education of youths and managerial staffs of Moldova and Romania;
The awarding of Romanian citizenship to a million of Moldovan citizens;
The implementation of the NATO standards by the Defence Ministry of Moldova, development of cooperation with this organisation, acceptance of a NATO military contingent in country’s territory, preparations to join the alliance.

Note by ADEPT: This declaration is the most eloquent sample of “laundering brains” of citizens from Transnistria. There is no need to describe the state of Moldovan-Romanian relations in order to combat the Transnistrian propaganda, it is enough to note that prior to the April 5, 2009 parliamentary elections the Commissioner for external relations and neighborhood policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, had to send the following message via her spokesperson: “the European Commission is carefully monitoring the situation regarding the alleged entry restrictions on some Romanian citizens in the Republic of Moldova signaled after March 26… The Commission considers that legitimate trips by Romanian citizens to the Republic of Moldova shall not be obstructed.” That’s how the Republic of Moldova “joins” Romania.

Analyst Vladimir Socor regarding Barvikha Declaration

Commenting the signing of the “trilateral” declaration — Medvedev, Voronin, Smirnov — in Barvikha, Gamestown Foundation analyst Vladimir Socor notes that:

President Vladimir Voronin has signed the Declaration for electoral reasons with the purpose to be covered by Russian TV stations which control the media space in Moldova, besides President Medvedev and Patriarchate Kirill whom Moldovan citizens trust the most;
By signing the Declaration, Voronin has yielded more than he has got, venturing unprofessionally into a trap. Voronin ceded because his former adviser Mark Tkaciuc or Minister of Reintegration Vasile Sova did not accompany him to Moscow. Nor does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seem to have been involved in this event;
The consequences of the signed Declaration are not irreparable, but they weakened Moldova’s positions. It will be very hard to the next chief of state to redress the situation;
The signing of the Barvikha Declaration means the renunciation by Moldovan authorities to documents signed by Russia at the Istanbul OSCE Summit and the comeback to the vicious circle — Russia does not pull out its troops because a political solution to the conflict is unavailable, while the conflict will not be settled because of unwillingness to withdraw the troops. The declaration undermines the EU and US positions with regard to withdrawal of the Russian military presence from the region;
By accepting the continuation of the “2+1” consultations, President Voronin has made premises for the negotiation and adoption of key decisions on Transnistrian problem in this format, so that to further present them in the “5+2” format as accomplished deeds in order to legalize them;
Moldova’s position from perspective of the CFE Treaty and 1999 Istanbul agreements, which say that foreign troops cannot station in the territory of a country with its consent, was undermined. Even more, as regards Moldova, the Istanbul requirements called for the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Russian military presence. The signing of the Declaration by President Voronin allows Russia and a number of western states to argue that the Republic of Moldova has given up the positions related to the withdrawal of the Russian military presence;
The Moscow Declaration may help Russia persuade the West to ratify the CFE Treaty. The stationing of Russian troops in Moldova was a major obstacle in this respect. Germany and other NATO member states are already considering such possibilities. In this regard, Germany calls for the reinterpretation of the 1999 agreements, so that not to oblige Russia to pull out its peacekeeping forces.

Immediate consequences of the Barvikha Declaration

Just few days after signing the Barvikha Declaration, the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov restricted the access to the region for the ambassadors of the United States, Czech Republic which chairs the EU, and EU special representative to Moldova. By doing so, Smirnov proved clearly his attitude towards the “5+2” format after signing the Barvikha Declaration. In reply to this, President Voronin refused to meet the Transnistrian leader on March 25, 2009, as stipulated by the Declaration concerned. The Russian Federation regretted the refusal of President Voronin;
The Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) promised to settle the conflict rapidly when it took over the rule in February 2001. But the Transnistrian problem is unsettled so far after an 8-year-old governing. Even more, the PCRM took over the governing after the Russian Federation assumed some commitments at the 1999 Istanbul OSCE Summit which cancelled some groundless yielding by Moldova in the Transnistrian conflict. After eight years of rule ended with the signing of the Barvikha Declaration, President Vladimir Voronin brought back in fact the situation to the stage of “vicious circle” faced before the Istanbul OSCE Summit — the Russian troops do not quit the country because the conflict is not settled, while the conflict is not settled because neither Russia nor the Transnistrian regime it controls want the withdrawal of Russian troops. The least, the Moldovan authorities will not be able any longer to invoke the arguments they have indicated in the past four years from stands of the UN General Assembly, OSCE, etc. This is the “electoral price” that the PCRM leader decided to pay in quality of chief of state for eulogistic images and words in the Russian media which controls the Moldovan media area.

e-democracy.md