Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Lilian Darii on October 21 invited Russia’s Ambassador to Moldova Farit Muhametshin to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration in connection with the launch of a new stage of the rotation procedure within the Russian peacekeepers in the Security Zone, announced recently by the Ministry of Defense of Russia, IPN reports.
In a press release, the Ministry says that Lilian Darii expressed the Moldovan authorities’ indignation with which the official news about the first rotation stage in the Security Zone initiated by the so-called battalion of peacekeepers of the Operational Group of Russian Forces in the Transnistrian region, which was published on the Russian Ministry of Defense’s website, was received.
In this connection, the Moldovan official noted the inadmissibility of deviating from the practice agreed by the two states concerning the rotation mechanism applying to Russian peacekeepers, in accordance with the provisions of the agreement on the principles of peaceful settlement of the armed conflict in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, signed on July 21, 1992. Under this accord, the rotation within the Russian military contingent involved in the peacekeeping operations on the Nistru must be done with personnel from the military units deployed on the territory of Russia. But the Operational Group of Russian Forces is located on Moldova’s territory without the consent of the Moldovan authorities, which is illegally, and this should be thus withdrawn unconditionally and without delay.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the way in which the Ministry of Defense of Russia decided to perform the rotation procedure can be perceived only as an attempt to legalize the Russian presence on Moldova’s territory by a political subterfuge and to mislead the public opinion. Besides, the actions to recruit residents of the Transnistrian region to join the armed forces of Russia, including through advertising publications, continue and this causes bewilderment. In this connection, the Moldovan authorities underlined again the opportunity of transforming the current peacekeeping mission into a civil one with international mandate.
