As Infotag has already reported, on Tuesday the Russian Federation's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, met in Moscow with Moldovan Deputy Premier, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Iurie Leanca, and stated during the conversation and afterwards to the press that Russia stands for a special legal status for Transnistria within the territorially integral Republic of Moldova, and for resuming the official Transnistria negotiations as soon as possible.
Lavrov also said that both Russia and Moldova have one and the same desire - to have the official negotiations on Transnistria re-started without delay in order to work out a political compromise that would presuppose a model of a unified state within the framework of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, with a special status for Transnistria.
The Russian foreign minister stressed that an agreement to this effect must be achieved first and foremost by Chisinau and Tiraspol themselves - on the basis of equality and mutual respect, as this should always be between negotiation sides.
The Transnistrian MFA wrote in its statement, however, that not a single document, adopted throughout the many-year-long negotiation process, mentions a conflict settlement "within a unified state in the framework of the territorially integral Republic of Moldova".
"Any attempt to squeeze the complicated and comprehensive negotiation process into the Procrustean bed of models, being imposed from the outside disregarding the existing reality and violating human rights, will be rejected by the Transnistrian people and will cast doubt on the expediency of further work in the artificially limited framework of whatever format", said the official Tiraspol.
According to its statement, "The people of Transnistria has never lived within the Republic of Moldova and has never been connected with Moldova's statehood - be that in the modern history or in earlier times, except the period of coexistence within the Soviet Union frame".
The Transnistrian foreign ministry wrote that "the only subject eligible to take decisions concerning its own destiny is the multinational Transnistrian people, whose will was expressed at nationwide referenda, including one in 2006, when over 97% voters spoke for independence of Transnistria".
The ministry explained that the negotiation process would not be resumed due to the permanent political crisis in the Republic of Moldova and due to the absence of a legitimately elected president there.
At the same time, "The Transnistrian Moldovan Republic reaffirms its readiness for holding a negotiation process based on the principles of the equality of rights, creating of a multi-level system of guarantees, and an unconditional realization of accords reached previously".
Concerning the former Russian 14th Army's military property, still remaining in Transnistria, the official Tiraspol stressed that "this question is in the exceptional competence of the leaderships of the Russian Federation and the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic".
