RUSSIA OFFERS TO MEDIATE PEACE DEAL FOR MOLDOVA

Reuters AlertNet
Nov 14 2008
UK

CHISINAU, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Russia said on Friday it wants to help
solve a separatist conflict in ex-Soviet Moldova, part of a drive to
prove that despite its war with Georgia it can still act as an honest
broker among its neighbours.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who served as president
until May this year and retains much of his influence, met Moldovan
President Vladimir Voronin to discuss the conflict with the breakaway
Transdniestria region.

Many of Russia’s neighbours are wary of Russian influence after it
sent troops into Georgia in August, but since then it has renewed
efforts to broker peace deals in other "frozen conflicts" left over
from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told reporters
on the sidelines of a summit of ex-Soviet prime ministers in the
Moldovan capital that Moscow wanted to revive a Russian peace plan
that Moldova rejected in 2003.

"We really do believe that the peace plan that was proposed back
then was effective and could have been implemented," Shuvalov told
reporters.

"We will now try to reach new agreements, taking as our starting
point the territorial integrity of Moldova."

In the early 1990s Transdniestria, which has a majority
Russian-speaking population, broke away from Moldova, which has ethnic
and cultural ties to neighbouring Romania.

Russia sent troops to intervene in the conflict and some have stayed
in the region as a peacekeeping force, though many Moldovans accuse
them of siding with the separatists.

The plan previously proposed by Moscow involved a federal state in
which Transdniestria would have a large degree of autonomy and Russian
forces would remain in the region to oversee the agreement.

In a separate effort to prove Russia’s peacekeeping credentials after
the war with Georgia, President Dmitry Medvedev convened a meeting
of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss the disputed
Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

Observers say Moscow has reasonable prospects of brokering a deal over
Transdniestria because both Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest states,
and the separatists rely on natural gas and other supplies from Russia
for their economic survival.

Russia’s war with Georgia was focused on the breakaway South Ossetia
region, scene of another of the "frozen conflicts" inherited from the
Soviet Union. (Reporting by Denis Dyomkin; Writing by Christian Lowe;
Editing by Richard Williams)