First, there was a meeting between the political representatives of the sides — the foreign minister of the PMR and the vice premier on reintegration of Moldova, Vitaly Ignatyev and Gheorghe Balan. And again, it did not yield nearly any fruit, which is also a result.
It seems no one hopes that the provisions of the Berlin protocol signed in June 2016 will be implemented in the near future. Tiraspol continues to raise such problems as the recognition of vehicle numbers and politically motivated criminal prosecution, but to no effect. The same applies to the problem of railway freight traffic.
It should be noted that Austria's OSCE chairmanship is somewhat unseen now after the first period of activity and the prospects for a meeting in the «5+2» international format are rather vague. Gheorghe Balan seems to believe there is almost nothing to discuss in the «5+2» format.
He thinks, for example, that the planned establishment of joint Moldo-Ukrainian customs and border posts at the Kuchurgan crossing point has nothing to do with the «5+2» agenda, relating instead to the bilateral relationship between Moldova and Ukraine. What an interesting point of view!
There are no politically motivated criminal cases either, according to the vice premier, and the «5+2» format must deal exceptionally with the status of Pridnestrovie.
These status talks seem even funnier against the backdrop of the incident which occurred right there, in Kishinev's OSCE Mission office when Gheorghe Balan was commenting on the meeting results to journalists. We have already written about this incident. A Pridnestrovian journalist asked a question in Russian and the Moldovan vice premier was already set to answer it in Russian when representatives of the Kishinev press began to insist on him speaking only Romanian. And they did succeed. Although later Balan repeated his answer in Russian.
Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Leonid Rybkov has also drawn attention to this incident. He wrote very correctly: «Pridnestrovie has made sure one more time that its fears about «Romanisation' are not quite groundless.
If we start discussing the political status of Pridnestrovie, there will immediately arise a large number of unresolved problems and deep contradictions between Tiraspol and Kishinev, and it will become clear that «the status of Pridnestrovie» is not needed by. first of all, many in Moldova. It will also become apparent that the language problem, which was the source of the conflict, has not disappeared, including in everyday life.
The Moldovan police did not stand idle last week either: they stopped at the same place, near the village of Chetrosu, first a delegation of the office of the head of the Russian Imperial House and then the vice speaker of the Pridnestrovian parliament, Galina Antyufeyeva. It looked very much like a planned two-move operation.
Against this background, strange are the activities of Moldovan President Igor Dodon. He wants to meet President Krasnoselsky by any means until the end of March, about which he spoke at a meeting with both Russia's deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin and President Putin.
But let's keep an open mind on it: what could the two presidents talk about now? About the implementation of the Berlin protocol? As we have already seen, very little depends on Igor Dodon here.
About a «platform of national reconciliation» which he wants to promote with the assistance of the Russian Orthodox Church? The «platform» has been existing for several weeks in Dodon's statements, but what he really means remains to be seen. Why do we need another rather unclear «platform» if traditional, time-tested negotiation mechanisms do not work, as we can see today? If Kishinev does not commit to its written obligations?
There is probably no point speaking about the establishment by Moldova and Ukraine of joint border and customs control, especially since Igor Dodon (which is surprising) has not expressed his attitude to this issue. As if it does not exist. The second meeting of the presidents of Moldova and Pridnestrovie is may be needed only to publicly ask Dodon this question.
Since the January meeting of the presidents, relations between Tiraspol and Kishinev has even deteriorated rather than improved. The Moldovan president himself seems to be trying to settle something not in Tiraspol or Kishinev but in Moscow. But Moscow can't help with this, though. Igor Dodon has to make a deal, first of all, with the government and parliament of his country. If, of course, they have not already agreed and not distributed the roles.
Pavel Uvarov.
