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Moscow Was Not Understood in Chisinau
// ... but well received in Tiraspol
Today, the Russian delegation, headed by Yuri Zubakov, Deputy Secretary of Russia's Security Council, is returning from Moldavia. During the negotiations in Chisinau Moscow asked directly: would Moldavia agree to resolve the Pridnestrovie problem on Russian conditions, or it should expect tough economic blockade from the Russian side, The Moldavian President Vladimir Voronin rejected the ultimatum. Then, Russian delegation went to Tiraspol (capital of Pridnestrovie region) and got agreement with Pridnestrovie authorities about special economic relations with the unrecognized republic. This clearly indicates that Pridnestrovie is becoming second after Kaliningrad region Russian enclave.
Unfriendly Chisinau
The visit started on Tuesday in an atmosphere of secrecy. The agenda and list of the negotiators were not publicized. Only several days after it became known that Yuri Zubakov brought with him Vice President of Trade Industrial Chamber (TIC) Boris Pastukhov, Special Foreign Envoy Igor Savolsky, other officials from the Foreign Ministry, who supervise the Pridnestrovie problem, the officials from Ministry of Economic Development, the representative from Gasprom, Central Bank, Federal Security Bureau, Transportation Ministry and Federal Migration Service. In other words, the representatives of the official organs, responsible for the relationship with Moldavia went to Chisinau. The same people are using recently economic and political leverages to pressure this former-Soviet republic. For instance, last month Russia imposed a ban for import of Moldavian vines and earlier it promised to raise the price for natural gas to the European price level.
As Kommersant learned in the Administration of the Moldavian President, they have never seen yet that many Russian officials in Chisinau before. The source said that Russian flew in by its own initiatives and after their persistent request, Vladimir Voronin delayed his departure to Croatia, which was planned on Tuesday. According to the Kommersant source, the negotiations lasted about three hours but did not bear any fruits-- the Moldavian President categorically refused to make any concessions in Pridnestrovie (Moscow demands most of all to keep their Russian peacekeepers.) The delegation spent three days in Chisinau and met with Moldavian Prime Minister Vasily Tarlev, local head of the Foreign Ministry Andrey Stratan and Reintegration Minister Vasily Shova. The Moldavian officials were insisting that they cannot make any decisions without the consultation with the head of the states and he did not leave any instructions. All of this looked like complete seizure of the dialog between Moscow and Chisinau.
From Friendship to Blockade
In the mean time, only two years ago the relationship between Russia and Moldavia was the most cloudless in the CIS, and Vladimir Voronin was known as the most pro-Russian politician in all post-Soviet space. That was because of Russian support of the leader of Moldavian communists became president in 2001. After that he was warmly received in the Kremlin during his often visits. The relationship spoiled the fall before last. In October of 2003, President Voronin rejected the previously agreed upon plan of Pridnestrovie settlement, which was created in that time by the head of the Russian Presidential Administration Dmitry Kozak. This plan was rejected just several hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to fly to Chisinau. After breaking up with Moscow, Moldavian president decided to place his bets with Brussels, and announced the course of the country integration into the European Union. Because of that, Voronin won presidential election for the second time in the spring of 2005.
Since then, the ways of Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Voronin crossed only in rare CIS summits. During the last one - in August of this year in Kazan -- two presidents agreed "to overcome the obstacles on the way of development of normal Russian-Moldavian relations." According to the official version, two presidents talked already in Kazan about the Zubakov's delegation visit. Moscow, probably, thought, that after Moldavia lost its main market for the wine export, Chisinau will come back to its senses and will throw the white flag. It did not happen this way.
However, the failure of the negotiations could be predicted several days before their start. It has become clear after the interview of Moldavian President to BBC Rumanian Service. "I officially state that Moldavia is ready to leave without its wine export to Russia. It will be difficult, but we are ready to live in the cold, to freeze without Russian gas, but we won't give up. Moldavia will not sacrifice its integrity, sovereignty and freedom, despite the price we would have to pay," Voronin said. Possibly, if this interview was read in Moscow, the delegation, headed by Zubakov, would cancel its trip to Moldavia.
Welcoming Tiraspol
Yuri Zubakov was put on the Moldavian beat for a reason. Starting from the August of 2003 until the April of 2004, he worked in Moldavia as an Ambassador. It was Zubkov who helped Dmitry Kozak to persuade the authorities of Moldavia and Pridnestrovie to accept the Russian settlement plan, which later was called by the press "Kozak's memorandum.” However, Zubakov did not last a year as the Ambassador -- Chisinau rejected the Kremlin's plan, getting mad at the condition of maintaining the presence of Russian troops in Pridnestrovie for 15 years. Zubakov was called back to Moscow, where the position of the Deputy Secretary of Security Council was waiting for him. On his new job, Zubakov started to specialize on settlements in post-Soviet space with retaining the Russian influence in CIS countries.
During Zubakov, the Security Council developed the so-called "plan of measures to maintain the Russian influence in Republic of Moldavia." The main goal of the Russian policy was prevention of Moldavia's leaning to the Western direction and final relief from the Moscow's influence. The goal was also to keep Russian military present in Pridnestrovie. To keep the Chisinau in Moscow's orbit, the plan offered to increase political and trade-economical, and humanitarian pressure in the most sensitive points. However, the document cautioned that the possible sanctions against Moldavia should at all cost bypass Pridnestrovie.
On the next day after the cold reception in Chisinau, Yuri Zubakov took the Russian delegation to Pridnestrovie capital - Tiraspol. Here, the Russian officials were met quite warmly. On Wednesday and Thursday the delegation was having negotiations with Igor Smirnov, the president of the unrecognized republic. The goals and results of the visit was commented on by Boris Pastukhov, President of Trade-Industrial Chamber. According to him, the chosen line lays in the direction of forming new pragmatic policy by Moscow. "The time of ‘giveaways,’ conversations, kisses, including the economical ones, has passed," Pastukhov said. "When our Pridnestrovie colleagues say that it is hard to move their production to Russia and customs control is being brutal, we are intending to take on these problems very closely." It was decided not to prolong the solutions of the problems and the two sides immediately signed an agreement "About the perspectives of cooperation between Russian and Pridnestrovie business communities."
Tiraspol was full of joy. The head of the Pridnestrovie Foreign Ministry Valery Litskai told Kommersant that Russia had to switch long time ago from diplomatic pirouettes to the pragmatic policy. "That had to start five years ago. Why is there Russian-Moldavian commission and no Russian-Pridnestrovie commission? Now, everything will be different," he said. According to the minister, there were discussions with Russian experts about the gas supply to Pridnestrovie, cooperation in the area of energy resources, transportation, industry and banking.
Because Pridnestrovie is territorially separated from Russia by Ukraine, Moscow does not have the opportunity to support directly the rebellious region. It is clear that Russia would have to use a special ways to help friendly republic. In this case it could use the experience of Kaliningrad region -- Moscow hopes to get agreement from Kiev about the transit through the Ukrainian territory of people and cargo.
However, the perspectives of the Russian-Pridnestrovie cooperation do not look too encouraging. The reaction of European Union and the United States would be strictly negative. Brussels and Washington are seeing the self-proclaimed republic as criminal enclave on CIS territories, which are play role of the hubs for weapons and drug trafficking. Also, only two years from now Romania will join the EU and Moldova will have a common border with European Union. It means that Brussels has to speed up final solution of the Pridnestrovie conflict, which is impossible with today's Moscow position. That's what Chisinau is really hoping for -- the help from the West.
by
Vladimir Soloviev
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 14, 2005
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