At this stage, Tiraspol needs the talks in the 5+2 format more than Chisinau given that Ukraine strictly monitors the Transnistrian segment of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border and this significantly hampers the existence of the regime in Transnistria, deputy head of the Center for Political Research and Consultancy “Politicon” Ion Tabarta said in an interview for Radio Free Europe, quoted by IPN.

The political analyst noted that the official Chisinau must realize that Russia wants to impose on the agenda subjects that would take the Transnistrian region out of the current isolation. The major goal of Chisinau is to now bring Tiraspol closer at political level.

“Tiraspol should make concessions by which to ultimately admit that Chisinau, not it, is the administrative center, and that it does not have a status equal to that of Chisinau, as the Kozak Plan of 2003 envisioned,” stated Ion Tabarta.

The analyst noted that the Transnistrian region needs Moldova from economic viewpoint to overcome the difficult situation faced now. “Chisinau now has enough trump cards to raise the political aspect of the Transnistrian conflict, what it didn’t manage to do until now because the political agenda was imposed by Moscow,” he said.

However, Ion Tabarta considers that Chisinau cannot go to these talks very optimistic as these focus more on particular technical aspects.

As to the 5+2 format of the talks, the analyst said this didn’t help to politically resolve the conflict and didn’t contribute to returning the territory from the left side of the Nistru under the administrative control of Chisinau.