| Chisinau and Kyiv claim that Tiraspol carved itself Ukraine and Moldova have headed for the economic isolation of Transnistria. This statement was made yesterday by Ambassador at Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Valery Kenyaykin. He headed the Russian interdepartmental group, which, on March 7-9, studied the situation in the region after the decision made by Kiev on March 3 not to allow Transnistrian cargo through the Ukrainian border without customs clearance from the Republic of Moldova.
Russian Security Council representative Vladimir Kolesnikov believes that “if this situation on the border continues, we could get a new humanitarian catastrophe in this region.” The validity of the forecast was confirmed to Vremya Novostei by Gennady Rossikhin, Deputy Minister of State Security of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (PMR). He clarified that a very tense situation has developed in the region due to the actual blockade of Pridnestrovian cargo flows on the Ukrainian border, where about three hundred wagons with export products of Pridnestrovian enterprises and hundreds of vehicles from Pridnestrovie have accumulated. Pridnestrovians picketing the checkpoint demand an end to the economic strangulation of their republic.
The Minister of Reintegration of Moldova Vasily Shova sees the situation differently. “We have proposed a simple, understandable scheme for registering Pridnestrovian enterprises in Chisinau,” said Mr. Shova. “For this, no obstacles are made to them, but on the contrary, the most preferential conditions have been created.” Yesterday, the Parliament of Moldova stated that “the separatist regime in Tiraspol is trying to doom the region to self-isolation, to bring it to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.” Having succumbed to the “influence of Transnistrian leaders,” “some politicians and political forces in Russia,” according to Moldovan deputies, “without notifying Chisinau, sent a Russian delegation to Transnistria, which made dubious statements bordering on an attempt to separate Transnistria from the Republic of Moldova.”
As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR Vitaly Yankovsky noted to VN, only the Russians considered it necessary to familiarize themselves with the situation on the ground and listen to the opinion of the Pridnestrovians. “All the other parties and structures that made statements on this issue - the European Union, the US State Department, representatives of Chisinau and the interdepartmental Ukrainian commission - have not yet visited Pridnestrovie and have not communicated with our leadership,” the deputy minister added. Vitaly Yankovsky was not least referring to the acting statement. US State Department press secretary Tom Casey, who called the actions of the Ukrainian authorities “an important step towards ensuring border security and achieving a sustainable settlement of the Transnistrian conflict.”
The statement of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also emphasizes that the conflict situation “is created artificially and means nothing more than a self-blockade organized by the Tiraspol authorities.” This thesis was repeated yesterday by Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Yekhanurov. To observe how the Pridnestrovians are “blocking themselves,” Kyiv sent an interdepartmental commission to the border. On March 8, it held its first meeting in Odessa.
During a telephone conversation, the Presidents of Ukraine and the PMR, Viktor Yushchenko and Igor Smirnov, agreed to create another special expert commission to study the current situation. Tiraspol does not know when it will be formed. But they welcome any desire to resolve the current crisis with the participation and taking into account the opinion of the Pridnestrovian side. Of course, Tiraspol supported the idea of the Russian interdepartmental group to hold a special conference in Moscow with the participation of all interested parties, Vitaly Yankovsky emphasized in a conversation with VN. Pavel LUKYANCHENKO, Chisinau |
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