Transnistrian Conflict on January 17–31, 2011

Miroslav Lajčák was appointed as EU Special Representative for Moldova

On January 24, 2011 the Head of the EU Delegation in Moldova, Dirk Schuebel, announced that EU has appointed a new representative for Moldova, who will deal with Transnistrian settlement. The statement of Mr Dirk Schuebel was made public by Infotag News Agency: “Following the Lisbon Agreement, the European External Action Service was formed. Instead of Mr. Kalman Mizsei, the EU will be represented as observer in the 5+2 negotiation format by Mr. Lajčák, former Foreign Minister of Slovakia”. Infotag also published the CV of Miroslav Lajčák, a Slovak citizen, Catholic, born on March 6, 1963 in Poprad (Czechoslovakia), graduated the law department of Comenius University (Bratislava), studied international law in Moscow, studied at European Centre “George Marshall” in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany). Since 1988 he works in diplomacy of Czechoslovakia and then of Slovakia. In 1991–1993 he worked at the Czechoslovak and Slovak embassies in Moscow, then he worked in the HQ of Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1994–1998 he was Ambassador to Japan. He speaks Russian, English, German, Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian. In 2001–2005 Lajčák was Ambassador of Slovakia to Yugoslavia (since 2003 Serbia and Montenegro) and concurrently Ambassador to Albania and Macedonia (with residence in Belgrade). Since December 2005 till May 2006 Lajčák was Special Envoy of EU High Representative Xavier Solana in preparing and conducting the referendum on the issue of Montenegro’s independence. Here Lajčák played an important role in ensuring, by the line of European diplomacy, Montenegro’s secession from the state of Serbia and Montenegro. On July 1, 2007 Miroslav Lajčák has served as the international community’s High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2009–2010 Lajčák was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia. In December 2010 he was appointed Managing Director for Russia, Eastern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans in the EU’s External Action Service.

Next round of consultations on Transnistrian settlement

The next round of consultations on Transnistrian settlement in “5+2” format will be held on February 14–15, 2011 in Vienna. For three of the participants their position will be a new one. These are the new deputy Prime minister for the reintegration of the Republic of Moldova, Eugen Carpov, who will replace the former Moldovan deputy Prime minister, Victor Osipov, new special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Giedrius Cekuolis, representing the Lithuanian OSCE presidency, replacing the Kazakhstan’s representative, and the EU special Representative, former Foreign Minister of Slovakia, Miroslav Lajčák, named as participant in negotiations on behalf of the EU, replacing Kalman Mizsei. Four months from now, on 1st of October 2010, Ukraine also has appointed a new special Representative to the negotiations, Igor Harchenko, but he debuted in November 2010 in “5+2” consultations in Kiev. Russia has appointed a new special Representative in the Transnistrian settlement process, Sergey Gubarev, in May 2010. In order to prepare the Vienna meeting, the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Giedrius Cekuolis, has visited Tiraspol on 19 January, where he met the Transnistrian leadership. At the meeting with the head of Tiraspol’s diplomacy, Vladimir Yastrebchak, Giedrius Cekuolis said that Lithuanian OSCE chairmanship intends to play an active role in normalizing relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol, among the immediate objectives of the Lithuanian chairmanship being the resumption of consultations in the “5+2” format on official level, strengthening Moldovan and Transnistrian expert groups’ work. Vladimir Yastrebchak reiterated Tiraspol’s position regarding the possibility of resuming the official activity in “5+2” format, which consist in the fact that any matters related to this issue requires also a thorough preparation with all international partners, with guaranteeing countries Russia and Ukraine. “ In Chisinau Giedrius Cekuolis had a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Iurie Leanca, who noted that «Moldovan diplomacy will conduct an active dialogue with external partners in order to advance the settlement process and make use of major political initiatives launched in 2010». The two officials agreed on the need to unconditionally resume the official negotiations in «5+2» format. Giedrius Cekuolis pointed out that the agenda of talks between Chisinau and Tiraspol should take as priority the issues related to free movement of persons and goods between the two sides of Nistru river. In turn, the Minister Leanca confirmed the availability of Moldovan Government to further promote the confidence-building measures, designed to create a favourable atmosphere in the conflict settlement process.

Russia and Ukraine advocate the territorial integrity of Moldova, but…

Russian Ambassador to Moldova Valery Kuzmin, gave an interview on January 24, 2011 to Info-Prim Neo News Agency, where he said that his country supports the territorial integrity of Moldova and advocate the settlement of Transnistrian problem by granting Transnistria with a guaranteed status. According to Kuzmin, territorial integrity doesn’t automatically mean also the unitary character of the state, and there are models of federative states and even confederative ones. He also noted that in the settlement process the format of international involvement in the process will also change. Current joint military mission will be substituted by a civil multinational peacekeeping mission. But this aspect will occur only in the final stage of the process and it does not represent a starting premise. Ambassador Kuzmin condemned the exacerbation of phobias related to the Russian military presence in Transnistria, stressing that the deployment of U.S. military bases in Romania and Bulgaria influences much more the political instability in the region. In the same vein, on 28 January 2011, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Constantin Grishchenko said that peaceful settlement of Transnistrian problem corresponds to his country’s national interests. This position is clear, firm and balanced. The conflict shall be resolved respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Moldova, and Transnistria will have to get a special legal status within the Republic of Moldova.

Representatives of Russia and Ukraine visited the munitions depot in Colbasna

On 26 January 2011, special representatives of Russia and Ukraine in Transnistrian conflict settlement, Sergey Gubarev and Igor Harchenko, accompanied by Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov, visited the munitions depot in Colbasna, situated on left Nistru bank. Inspectors were satisfied with the status of munitions in the warehouse, saying that “their storage does not pose any danger … although the protection surface of some of them has expired and they must be transported to special places for recycling”. On the other hand, Igor Smirnov said that deployment of munitions on Transnistrian territory is a guarantee against Moldova’s aggression, because the “attitude of Chisinau towards Transnistrian citizens, who never lived in Moldova and have no plans to do so, did not improve”.

Supreme Soviet of Transnistria started its activity

On 19 January 2011, in Tiraspol, the Transnistrian Supreme Soviet of 5th convocation, elected on December 12, 2010, started its activity. Anatoly Kaminsky was elected as the Chairman of Transnistrian legislative body; he is an MP from the party “Obnovlenye”, which has 28 seats out of 43. The following people were elected as Deputy Chairmen of the Supreme Soviet: Mihail Burla, who also holds the position of chairman of the parliamentary committee for economic policy, budget and finance, and Sergey Ceban, who will also hold the position of chairman of the committee for health and social protection. In total, the Supreme Soviet will have seven committees:

on development of small and medium business and industry — Victor Guzun;
on state constructions, local administration, citizens’ rights and freedoms, security and defence — Galina Antyufeeva;
on agro-industrial complex and transport — Efim Coval;
on public associations, youth policy, sport and mass media — Vyacheslav Tobuh;
on education, science and culture — Vladimir Bodnar;
on external policy — Dmitry Soin;
on immunity, regulation and ethics of MPs — Gregory Diachenco.

In its work, the Supreme Soviet will focus on solving social problems. One of the issues is the status of Ukrainian and Moldovan languages, which are declared as official languages, but according to the chairman of the committee for education, science and culture, Vladimir Bodnar, they have this status only on paper. Bondar argues there are tremendous problems in getting the education in Moldovan languages, only Russia and Ukraine provide substantial support in this regard, and nobody provides any support from the Republic of Moldova and Romania. Despite this fact and that Moldovans know and communicate in Russian and Ukrainian, in education everyone shall be equal”. Among the foreign policy priorities, the Chairman of Transnistrian legislative highlighted the efforts for the recognition of Transnistrian independence and “enhanced cooperation with the Russian State Duma committees and working groups for cooperation between Transnistrian and Russian parliamentarians”.

The draft amendment to Transnistrian constitution was published

On 28 January 2011, the Supreme Soviet of Transnistria made public the draft amendment to the constitution in order to be consulted and discussed by the public. President of the Supreme Soviet, Anatoly Kaminsky, said that the draft was prepared by a constitutional commission, which since December 2009 involved the activity of representatives of the legislative, executive and judiciary institutions. The main constitutional issues that were reviewed were coordinated with representatives of the three powers, based on checks and balances principles. It was also stressed that this draft was developed under the initiative of harmonizing Transnistrian legislation with that of Russia. In this regard, it is expected that the prime Minister position will be introduced, who will coordinate the work of government (now Transnistria has a pure presidential system, the president being the chief of executive), the number of MPs, who shall work full time, shall be reduced. The draft provides for amending the procedures for appointing judges that shall be made after the Russian model — judges shall be appointed by the Supreme Soviet, upon the proposal of the President. The age census for judges shall be increased from 65 to 70 years. The procedure for appointing the leaders of local administration in towns and districts will be also amended; they shall be appointed by prime minister after consultations with the local soviets; it is assumed that this appointment mechanism will strengthen the accountability of the appointees. The draft amendment to Transnistrian Constitution will be examined in first reading on March 9, 2011, and its final adoption is planned for this autumn. Part of new constitutional provisions shall come into force this year, while those on setting the government — in 2012, after the presidential elections planned for December 2011.

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