Alegerile parlamentare din 2021 în Republica Moldova - alegeri.md
 Monitoring→Politics→Transnistrian Conflict

Transnistrian Conflict on March 16 – April 1, 2011

Developing a new strategy for country’s reintegration

On 28 March 2011, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Vlad Filat, took place the first meeting of the Governmental Commission for Reintegration, established by Governmental Decision no. 132 of March 4, 2011. During the meeting it was decided to develop a strategy for reintegration of the country. According to the Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration, Eugen Carpov, reintegration of the country shall be accomplished on the basis and within the current legal framework and international standards. Basic settlement principles are as follows:

According to Prime Minister Vlad Filat — “Reintegration of the country is and will be a vitally important goal of Moldovan Government. We will intensify efforts to find a viable and lasting solution to the Transnistrian conflict based on respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova within internationally recognized borders.” In this context, the Commission decided that within each ministry and central public authority a deputy minister, deputy director should and working group established to ensure the achievement of objectives set out in the settlement of Transnistrian conflict in their area of activity, continuity of actions and keep the proper archive folder. These groups shall also examine the documents signed earlier in the Transnistrian settlement process and, according to their competences, to submit their views on their up-to-datedness, as well as sectoral proposals for the draft Reintegration Strategy, in the areas for which they are responsible. (According to MOLDPRES)

Position of Russia is interpreted differently in Chisinau and Tiraspol

On March 28, 2011 the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova, Iurie Leanca, had a meeting in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. During the meeting, Sergey Lavrov reiterated that Russia stands for solving the Transnistrian problem by providing a special status to this region, the resumption of official negotiations in the “5+2” format, reformatting the peacekeeping operation in the region, evacuation and destruction of expired Russian ammunition. According to Sergey Lavrov, it has to be thought on possible ways to adapt a possible international presence to the tasks to be derived from specific settlement plans, because they will provide for more complex tasks and not only for maintaining peace between the parties in this region. On the other hand, Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov said that Russia’s position remains unchanged and “is based on the Declaration of 18 March 2009 made by Presidents Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Voronin and Igor Smirnov.” According to Smirnov, none of the more than 80 documents signed during the Transnistrian settlement process does contain references to the settlement of the problem based on the territorial integrity of Moldova. In the same vein, the head of Tiraspol diplomacy, Vladimir Yastrebchak, mentioned that attempts to predetermine the model of conflict resolution before the two sides reach common ground in this regard undermines the principle of equal parties. From this point of view, the position of Transnistria is unequivocal — independence from Moldova, the position that was confirmed by the referendum in September 2006. Regarding the transformation of the peacekeeping operation, Yastrebchak said the order of events must be different — first the final settlement and only then the modification of operation. The evacuation of Russian ammunition from depot in Colbasna must be carried out within the context of the settlement.

The economy of Transnistrian region regresses

In the first two months of 2011 the economic situation in Transnistrian region worsened. In particular, the industrial output fell by about 15% over the same period of last year. The decrease is due to the problems the Transnistrian economic giants are facing with — Rybnitsa Metallurgical Plant (RMP) and the cement plant in the same locality. According to official statistics in the region, the RMP production became unprofitable after the unleashed financial-economic crisis two years ago. The aid offered by Tiraspol administration to keep RMP afloat — lending USD 30 million i.e. over 70% of total loans — could not save the situation, and the solution for further activity of RMP shall be decided by its shareholders and owners. RMP problems worsen also due to the wear equipment, lack of resources for its modernization. In this context, the Transnistrian administration tries to get rid of assets that still can be attractive for privatization, by adopting the de-nationalization and privatization programme for 2011–2012.According to the programme, the privatization list includes 21 state enterprises worth ~ USD 1.5 million. A major problem for the economy of Transnistria is that after the privatization program launched in 2002, when about 150 enterprises were sold for about 120 million USD, more than half of new owners did not honour their obligations under the investment program. (According to INFOTAG)

Challenges in a row

On 24 March 2011 Moldovan delegation in the Joint Control Commission (JCC) has expressed concern about increasing Transnistrian military presence in the security zone and about the lack of transparency in this matter. Transnistrian side accomplishes military applications in security zone, “mobilizing action to fulfill the task of resisting the Republic of Moldova — designated enemy of Transnistria.” Also under this context comes the detention on 27 March 2011 of two employees of local housing service in Corjova for the fact that they installed in the village centre gaming equipment for children. In Corjova such conflicts occur quite often because of the dispute that this locality would belong to the town Dubasari, which is under jurisdiction of Transnistrian separatist administration.

March 1–15, 2011 April 2–15, 2011