The Republic of Moldova was put in a situation to create conditions for Russia to establish itself as a peacemaker in Transnistria, thinks the political Igor Boțan.
“The perfect trap (the Moldovan-Russian peacekeeping agreement of July 21, 1992) closed in October 1994, when the Moldovan Prime Minister Sangheli and the Russian Prime Minister Chernomyrdin agreed to synchronize the withdrawal of Russian troops with the political settlement of the conflict, after which Moldova entered this vicious circle. The State Duma never ratified that agreement, so we were left with peacekeepers drawn into this trap”, he said during an IPN debate the explored the influence of the Transnistrian conflict on Moldova’s independence.
According to Igor Boțan, the hot phase of the Transnistrian conflict in was the most important, with a lot of literature being available describing how Chisinau was drawn into the trap. “And an essential place belongs to the provocation that took place in Bender (in June 1992), when an attack was made on representatives of the Russian army... After that, the so-called peace talks started, the perfect trap in which Moldova ended up, because it was recognized that Transnistria is a party to the conflict, that Russia is a peacekeeper. Two weeks after the signing of the July 21 Agreement, airborne forces from Pskov and Tula arrived in Transnistria and the peacekeeping began”, said Igor Boțan.
“These things were planned during the disintegration the Soviet Union, so that the Russian Federation could drop anchors, such as the Transnistrian separatist regime that prevented Moldova’s growth. Examples of such anchors include Crimea in Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia. All these things were designed in advance to have leverage to one day restore the empire that was falling apart”, thinks the expert.
According to the expert, the confidence-building policy in Chisinau’s relation with Tiraspol has been a correct strategy promoting a very clear message for Transnistria’s residents: if the Republic of Moldova is reunited, there will be benefits for them. “And the final version of the Transnistrian conflict settlement should be negotiated within the boundaries of the 2005 Law (on Transnistria’s Special Status), as this is the only law that is in agreement with the Moldovan Constitution”, said Igor Boțan.
The debate titled “Moldova’s independence with a Transnistrian birthmark” was the 260th installment of the Political Culture Series, run by IPN with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
