People’s lack of interest in Transnistrian settlement generates lack of action

The Transnistrian settlement is at the periphery of public interest, notes analyst Oazu Nantoi, citing opinion polls published in the last few years. The citizens don’t pressure the politicians who, in turn, have not yet developed a Strategy for the conflict's settlement, even though the necessity for such a document has been discussed numerous times both during election campaigns as well as after them, the expert mentioned. According to Oazu Nantoi, the Transnistrian issue will not be solved in the near future, because many of the actors involved in this conflict are interested in preserving the status quo. Another expert on the Transnistrian issue, Radu Vrabie, told Info-Prim Neo that the solution of the conflict is mentioned in the Government Plan with a priority of rank 2, and in the Law on the basic aspects of the special status of the settlements on the left side of the Nistru river, adopted in 2005. There is also a series of Government decisions that address this topic. In the for National Security Strategy the topic of the Transnistrian conflict is confined within 13 lines. Radu Vrabie says that there is only one conceptual model for the solution of the conflict, which was drafted last year, and which is to be edited and modified with regards to the recent changes in the ruling structure at Tiraspol. As regards the financial aspect, there is the reintegration fund, which allocates 10 million annually to the settlements in the security zone. “The Government collaborates with other institutions that invest money into the solution of the Transnistrian conflict and in confidence building between the two sides”, said Radu Vrabie. A future Strategy for the solution of the Transnistrian conflict should engulf several aspects that would show a clear position of the both sides involved in the conflict. It should contain the strong points of Moldova’s position on the matter, the weak points in the promotion of attitudes, perspectives, risks and concrete steps to be taken for the accumulation of trust, and solution of the conflict, the two experts say. The special representative of the Russian Federation to Transnistria, Dmitri Rogozin, has previously alluded to the fact that none of the resolution methods initiated by Moldova will succeed until the left bank of the Dniester does not pay its debts to Gazprom.