The Moldovan parliement recently signed a Ukraine-drafted accord on how to move forward with the Transdniestria separatist conflict.

HISINAU, June 10 (Itar-Tass) – Moldovan parliament has approved a plan of settlement of the conflict with the breakaway Dniester region proposed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.

Parliament also has adopted an address to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on principles and conditions of demilitarisation and democratisation of the Dniester region.

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and the government attended the parliamentary sitting.

The declaration approving the Ukraine-proposed settlement plan said it ???????lacked some moments, including the withdrawal of Russian troops and the establishment of proper control of the Dniester stretch of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border, and these problems should be solved additionally with support from the international community and energetic assistance from Ukraine???????.

Voronin said in parliament that the Ukrainian plan was the ???????most checked out and promising document??????? that had been ever laid on the negotiating table.

He added that a ???????most important element of settlement is demilitarisation of Trans-Dnestria and the withdrawal of Russian troops form the region???????.
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It described as its main criteria the liquidation of the Dniester region????????s secret services, access of Moldovan parliamentary parties to the region, reform of its judiciary system, fee work of mass media and release of prisoners of conscience.

The address asks the OSCE, the European Union, Russia and the US to help these processes.

The documents also demands Russia????????s withdrawing its troops and arms from the Dniester region by the end of this year, ???????considering the fact that the peacekeeping presence of Russia in the safety area has achieved its goals, and it should be liquidated by the end of 2006???????.

The peacekeeping mission should be replaced with military and civil observers with the OSCE????????s mandate, parliament said.

The resolution comes about with the reinvigoration of the GUAM alliance, a strategic pact between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. It is meant to secure the respective countries’ economic and political interests toward free markets, democracy, and territorial integrity independent of Russian influence. A similar example would be the recent deal brokered between Georgia and Russia, with the backing of the US, the OSCE, and GUAM for the removal of Russian troops by 2008 from the break-away provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The plan drafted by Ukraine would reintegrate Transdniestria with Moldova, but would grant the region general autonomy of its own affairs. It fails to mention the withdrawal of Russian troops, but the Moldovan parliament is likely to modify the proposal on that ground.

The Russian troops are in Transdniestria for a similar reason as they are in Georgia, for peace-keeping efforts, though now it has simply become a Russian base for political influence in Moldova. Their presence is basically a forward to continue the agitation of the region against the mainland country by through funding from arms smuggling and possibly human trafficking. In fact, during the recent election in March, Russia openly backed and financed the Moscow-leaning Democratic Moldova bloc. This makes Moldova’s first priority, therefore, is to get Russia out and reintegrate Transdniestria as a completion to its territorial sovereignty.

President Voronin, while a “communist,” is really one in name only. His main aim, and that of all each GUAM member state, is to be independent of Russian influence. This means, both figuratively and geographically, moving closer toward the European Union. Voronin himself takes this stance, and he was able to regain his presidency with the support of the pro-Romania Christian Democrats. In other words, the only place this country is going is west. And organizations like the OSCE and NATO will be happy to assist. Voronin travelled to Brussels to ask assistance of them in hopes of securing a Russian pullout by the end of the year, something Russia regards as impossible.

I doubt as well that it would be possible in such a short period of time, but it will definitely happen given the collective bargaining power of a sovereign Moldova, Romania, OSCE, EU, NATO, GUAM, and US. Russia has a couple thousand soldiers and Soviet military equipment in place, along with huge stockpiles of ammunition tbat nobody wants to explode should a local conflict erupt. This makes it necessary to negotiate, as Georgia did, in a peaceful and timely matter. If this can happen, Russian troops won’t be out by December, but it will be the first step toward the reintegration with Transdniestria.