Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs accuses Moldova of the fact that Russia did not withdraw troops from Transnistria

The military munitions from Transnistria will be withdrawn only after the results of Moldova’s unilateral actions will be overcome and only after the settlement process will be resumed, Serghei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister stated at the 14th OSCE meeting of ministers. Lavrov told reporters that the process of munitions’ and troops’ evacuation took place in 2003, when 50 train sets had been evacuated. After this, the action was stopped in light of the fact that the negotiation process came to a deadlock. According to the Russian official, this process was unilaterally stopped by the Moldovan party. Lavrov mentioned that it is possible to draw an agreement variant only if all the involved parties participate in. Speaking about conflict’s present state of affairs, the Russian minister said he hopes that after the meeting of the Russian and Moldovan presidents, progresses will be ascertained in this respect. Within the frameworks of the 14th meeting of OSCE’s Council of Ministers, the European Union, the USA and the term-in-office Presidency of OSCE, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Latvia urged the Russian Federation to fulfill the engagements taken at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul (1999) as concerns the complete withdrawal of its military troops from the territory of Moldova.