The destruction or liquidation, in one way or another, of ammunition in the Transnistrian region should neither be a bilateral project between the Republic of Moldova and Russia nor a trilateral project between Chișinău-Tiraspol-Moscow, said political analyst Vladimir Socor, from the Jamestown Foundation from the United States. In his opinion, Russia can take advantage of the process of liquidation of ammunition in order to bring additional military personnel and equipment to the Transnistrian region under the pretext that these troops would work on the liquidation of ammunition.
"Moreover, these additional troops and Russian military equipment should transit through the territory of Ukraine. I doubt that Ukraine would allow this transit, which Russia could interpret and pervert it in its own way, then use it against Ukraine and against Moldova. Therefore, the project to liquidate the ammunition from Cobasna must be an international one and, when I say international, I am not referring to the OSCE, because the OSCE is at Russia's mercy. I am referring to, first of all, the United States and other western European powers that could cooperate with Russia on the project of ammunition liquidation", Vladimir Socor said in a Free Europe Radio interview, quoted by IPN.
In his opinion, the OSCE has an important role to play and was able to play this role until 2003-2004, when Russia suspended the evacuation or liquidation process of ammunition from Cobasna in response to the rejection by the Republic of Moldova of the "Kozak memorandum".
If the OSCE develops its own project for Cobasna ammunition, then it must be approved within the OSCE by Russia, which has the right to veto. Therefore, according to the analyst, only projects put forward by world powers as the United States can be channeled through the OSCE without Russia's participation.
During a joint press conference held in Moscow by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Nicu Popescu, and Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, the latter said that it would take about a year and a half in order to prepare the ammunition disposal process in the Transnistrian region. According to him, the Russian side submitted to the Moldovan party the proposals regarding the technical aspects of the preparation of the disposal process. The Russian official added that all the trials would take place in strict accordance with the security standards of the Russian army, with the participation of Russian specialists and equipment.
About 20 thousand tons of ammunition are stored at the Cobasna warehouse, under the management of Russian task force troops, many of which date back to the Second World War. Chișinău and other members of the 5 + 2 format have repeatedly called for an international inspection at the ammunition depot in Cobasna, which has always been refused by the Russian side.
