Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard
00:04:09
11/01/2019
fondsk.ru
“New strategy” – the demand to revise the 5+2 format
Because of the information hype in the media connected to the upcoming parliamentary elections in Moldova, the statement of the Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Kristina Lesnik, in which she promised to solve all the problems related to Transnistria that the previous authorities couldn’t solve in almost 30 years, remained rather unnoticed. It is for this purpose that the so-called new strategy was invented – Chisinau adopted it unilaterally, without coordinating it with Tiraspol.
Lesnik declared this on December 26th at a concluding press conference, but the events of the pre-election campaign, and then the New Year’s holiday, pushed the news connected to Transnistria into the background. Although they have explosive contents and clearly show that the current Moldovan authorities are orientated towards inciting a conflict with the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) according to the scenario rolled out in Ukraine.
Firstly, madam Lesnik was indignant by the fact that the “Transnistrian conflict is sometimes call Moldovan-Transnistrian”. In her opinion, this is “speculation” – supposedly under the 1992 truce document there are the signatures of the presidents of Russia and Moldova Boris Yeltsin and Mircea Snegur. And that’s why officially this is a Russian-Moldavian document about a ceasefire. It follows from Lesnik’s statement that Transnistria isn’t a party to the conflict, but it is Russia that represents this side. It’s very familiar, isn’t it? In Ukraine the armed conflict between the forces of the Kiev regime and the armies of the unrecognised Republics of Donbass was declared as “war with Russia”, so the government of Moldova also decided to go along the same way.
Secondly, the government of Moldova is going to work more resolutely in order to “force Tiraspol to accept all the conditions of Chisinau”. This is a question of all economic and humanitarian issues important for Transnistria now being directly coordinated with political issues, namely its return to the structure of the Republic of Moldova.
Thirdly, Chisinau will coerce Tiraspol into unification not independently, but together with Tbilisi and Kiev – the tripartite memorandum “on coordination of efforts on the reintegration of non-controlled territories” was recently signed. Lesnik thanked the American ambassador Dereck J. Hogan “for the support that the US gives to Chisinau, Kiev, and Tbilisi in their common aspirations”. It is absolutely clear that this “new strategy” was written under the dictation of Washington.
Fourthly, the government of Moldova intends to put the main emphasis on security issues, namely on Russian peacekeepers and their presence in Transnistria.
In fact, Lesnik’s message about a “new strategy” concerning the PMR is a demand to revise not only the international negotiation format on Transnistria “5+2”, but also the positions of its participants: the Russian Federation and the PMR.
The special role was assigned to Ukraine. This state more and more turns from a guarantor of peace in Transnistria into the fuse needed to kindle a conflict nearly 28 years later.
Isn’t it strange that already before the introduction of martial law in ten regions of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko suddenly called Transnistria “just as dangerous as Crimea”, and promised to deploy a special group of forces on the border with the PMR. And the Chief of the General Staff of the UAF Viktor Muzhenko met his colleague from Moldova Igor Cutie and discussed a plan of interaction should the situation in Transnistria become aggravated. And the Moldavian military leader for some reason went to Donbass to the front line.
The American media also throws fuel onto the fire – literally before New Year “Newsweek” published an article with a prediction: during the New Year’s holiday Russia will attack Ukraine and take away Transnistria, and the “residents of Moldova will wake up on the border with Russia”. They didn’t guess correctly, of course, but even crazy forecasts are good for inflating the intensity in the region. After all, it is not about solving the conflict in Transnistria any more, but about re-kindling it. The “new strategy” of the government of the Republic of Moldova created with the assistance of the US stipulates a coercive reunification of Transnistria and Moldova with the assistance of the Ukrainian and Georgian sides.
“In Moldova peace has been preserved for 26 years; Georgia fell into pieces after Saakashvili attacked (with the US’ assistance) South Ossetia and Russian peacekeepers in 2008; the military operations in Ukraine haven’t stopped for a minute. Whose experience does Chisinau want to borrow? The experience of achieving peace or of fratricidal war?”
wrote the “Moldavskiye Vedomosti” newspaper, analysing Kristina Lesnik’s statement about a “new strategy”
Unfortunately, the worst suppositions that Transnistria is considered by the US as one more place to exercise force for the purpose of putting more pressure on Russia (and at the same time Europe too) come true. And the timing was chosen not incidentally – during the election period, when the ruling clique of Moldova is ready to pay any price in order to remain in power.
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