Foreign Ministry says Russia tries to impose false theses on public opinion to justify non-fulfilment of its international obligations

It is regrettable that by terminological speculations, Russia tries to impose false theses on the public opinion in order to justify the non-fulfilment of its international obligations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova says in a commentary referring to the recent statements made by the Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov in an interview with the German paper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. The Ministry says that by adopting the Final Act of the Adapted CFE Treaty and the Final Statement of the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in 1999, the Russian Federation pledged to withdraw its conventional armed forces from Moldova by the end of 2001 and to fully withdraw its military presence from Moldova by the end of 2002. By the end of 2001, Russia pulled out only a part of the conventional armed forces from Moldova and namely the armament limited by the Treaty. The other two components of the conventional armed forces, i.e about 20,000 tonnes of munitions and over 1,000 military men, continue to be present on the territory of Moldova. Another problem is the unaccounted-for Treaty-Limited Equipment transmitted by Russia illegally to the anti-constitutional Tiraspol regime. These include tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery shells as well as helicopters. By maintaining this military presence in Moldova, Russia flagrantly violates the principle of the host country’s consent that is needed for foreign troops to be stationed, as stipulated in Article IV of the CFE Treaty, the commentary says. The Ministry also says that the phrase “Russian peacekeepers” on Moldova’s territory used by the Russian Foreign Minister does not adequately reflect the content and meaning of the ceasefire agreement of 1992. Under the terms of this agreement, the sides bring in the conflict zone “military contingents” and not “peacekeeping forces” as the Russian officials prefer to say, the commentary says. In the interview with the German publication, Lavrov said that Russia long ago fulfilled all the commitments it assumed at the Istanbul OSCE Summit in 1999.Russia does not have in Moldova the heavy weapons stipulated in the Treaty, Lavrov said. He specified that the peacekeeping forces stay in Moldova with Chisinau’s consent. A subdivision guards the about 20,000 tonnes of munitions that cannot be withdrawn owing to the Transnistrian conflict.