Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss how to resolve Slav separatism in Moldova during a visit later this month to the former Soviet republic, a spokesman for the country’s president said on Monday.
The announcement of Putin’s pending trip coincided with a warning from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe that ageing stockpiles of Soviet arms in Moldova’s separatist Dnestr region posed a growing security threat. Anatol Golea, a spokesman for President Petru Lucinski, said Putin would visit Moldova on June 16-17 – just after visiting Spain and Germany. He is in Italy after hosting a summit with US President Bill Clinton in Moscow. “During Mr Putin’s visit, the Dnestr issue will be among those discussed. Russia is an active mediator and guarantor of a final resolution,” state radio quoted him as saying. “Settling the conflict depends a great deal on Moscow’s position.” Russia is a major power broker in efforts to resolve the issue of the separatist region, which broke away from the rest of Moldova in 1990 when it was still a Soviet republic.
Dnestr’s Slavs feared at the time that Moldova would opt to merge with ethnic kin in neighbouring Romania and the dispute erupted into a civil war in 1992 in which hundreds died. Neither Moldova nor Romania favours such a union any longer. Russia, whose troops have since acted as peacekeepers in the Slav enclave, promised last year to withdraw soldiers and equipment by the end of 2002. It maintains about 2,000 troops in Dnestr and 40,000 tonnes of arms and ammunition. Dnestr has its own currency, constitution and customs posts but enjoys no international recognition. Negotiations to end the standoff and restore Moldova’s territorial integrity have dragged on for years. OSCE ambassador William Hill said Russia had yet to establish a firm timetable to withdraw its forces. “The overwhelming majority of OSCE countries are seriously concerned at the absence of any movement in withdrawing (Russian) military property, arms and troops from Dnestr,” he told a news conference. He said explosions like a recent blast at a fireworks factory in the Netherlands were also a danger in Dnestr. Reuters