Voronin-Smirnov meeting confirms no soon settlement of Transnistrian conflict is possible: analyst

“The meeting between Vladimir Voronin and Igor Smirnov is one proof more that the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict cannot be son achieved,” independent analyst Vlad Lupan has told Info-Prim Neo. “The divergences of positions are too big and one can say Transnistria is practically speaking in the name of Moscow. After August (on 25 August V. Voronin met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev – e.n.), Russia has more levers over Moldova and uses Transnistria as a speaker in the situations in which it wants to exert pressure on Chisinau. The Chisinau leadership has certain fears as to Russia's reaction this winter, and generally after the war from Georgia, but also as to Russia getting involved in the parliamentary elections in Moldova in 2009,” the analyst explains. The expert reminds that the Communists Party promised to settle the Transnistrian conflict till the end of 2008. “Now it's hard for them to go back. Obviously, they have not accomplished this promise of theirs. At the same time, they were afraid to refuse Russia and not meet the Tiraspol leader, since it is actually a Russian initiative, a fact confirmed by the Russian ambassador to Chisinau earlier in December,” Vlad Lupan says. This meetings has grave consequences for Moldova, the experts maintains. According to him, Chisinau has made more yieldings than Tiraspol has. Tiraspol agreed to send experts into the group dealing with economic issues, what does not necessarily mean they will be constructive. Second, Tiraspol promised to lift the visa and transit payments for Moldovan citizens. “It's difficult to compare these two yieldings with the cession Chisinau made, which is huge. The fact that the Chisinau authorities accepted the talks in the 2+1 format – Russia and Tiraspol versus Moldova – practically transforms Moldova into a minor actor within the talks in which Chisinau will resists hard the pressures of Moscow and Tiraspol,” Vlad Lupan specifies. Tiraspol has not stopped there, the analyst says. “Tiraspol hinted there were also other conditions. The question is that lifting the visa and transit charges would be directly linked to a future discussion on the issue of the vehicles from the Transnistrian area with Transnistrian number plates, what makes it difficult for the Tiraspol authorities as they also were losing money. It's clear they set not only the condition of returning to the 2+1 format, but additional conditions to make Chisinau's answer difficult.” In Lupan's view, a number of experts consider that the Tiraspol regime is flexible only it has to gain and that Moscow exerts pressure over Chisinau through the agency of Tiraspol. President Vladimir Voronin and Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov met Wednesday, December 24, in Tiraspol. The two leaders reached no agreement concerning the resumption of talks in the 5+2 format. They agreed, instead, to continue the consultations in the 2+1, that is Moldova, Transnistria and the Russian Federation.