The statement of the elected President of Moldova Maia Sandu on the need to withdraw Russian peacekeepers from Transnistria will never be accepted in Tiraspol, since this leads to the “unfreezing” of the Transnistrian conflict, Elena Panina, a member of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, told RIA Novosti.
The previously elected President of Moldova and the head of the Action and Solidarity party, Maia Sandu, said she hopes for a geopolitical opportunity to reunite Chisinau with Tiraspol, she said, a peaceful solution to the Transnistrian conflict should be achieved.
“Sandu wants the (Russian – ed.) Peacekeepers to leave (from Transnistria – ed.) And at the same time rejects the federalization scenario, which can help to ensure a balance of interests and long-term peace. What is offered to the residents of Transnistria in return? to the situation of 1992, when a bloody conflict broke out, which claimed the lives of thousands of people. There is a prospect of “unfreezing” followed by entering the “hot phase”, no matter what Sandu says about her desire to resolve the matter peacefully, “Panina noted.
According to the deputy, it is obvious that “this scenario will never be accepted in Tiraspol.” “The Transnistrian issue could have been resolved 17 years ago, when Russia proposed the” Kozak memorandum. “This project was rejected under US pressure. It remains only to regret that the current statements by Sandu seem to have been written under the dictation of the American prompter,” Panina said. …
The second round of presidential elections was held in Moldova on November 15. The citizens of Moldova elected the head of state for the next four years. The contenders in the second round of the elections were ex-premier Sandu and President Igor Dodon, who is running for a second term. Sandu won in the second round with 57.75%, Dodon scored 42.25%, the CEC said after processing 100% of the protocols.
Transnistria, 60% of whose inhabitants are Russians and Ukrainians, sought to secede from Moldova even before the collapse of the USSR, fearing that Moldova would join Romania on the wave of nationalism. In 1992, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Moldovan authorities to solve the problem by force, Transnistria became a territory virtually beyond the control of Chisinau. This year marks 28 years since the beginning of the peacekeeping operation in Transnistria. Peace in the conflict zone is supported by 402 Russian military personnel, 492 Transnistrian, 355 Moldovan and ten military observers from Ukraine. The peacekeepers serve at 15 stationary posts and checkpoints, which are located in key sectors of the security zone.