Tiraspol, 16 May. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The processes that have been inspired by Moldova with the support of a number of Western countries to destroy Pridnestrovian statehood by means of external pressure began many years ago and are now nearing the culmination, Pridnestrovie's foreign minister Vitaly Ignatyev said in an interview with the Centre for Military and Political Studies of MGIMO-University.
According to the Pridnestrovian diplomat, 25 yeas after the end of the armed phase of the conflict with Moldova, the policies of neighbouring states — first of all, Moldova —towards the Pridnestrovian people are rapidly exacerbating. The situation with regional stability is approaching the point where the exacerbation of the whole range of problems can become uncontrollable, Ignatyev notes.
«In fact, we are at some bifurcation point — either all parties to the Moldo-Pridnestrovian settlement will be able to reverse the negative trends, which first of all requires heeding Pridnestrovie's arguments, or we are going to face an escalation of tension with unpredictable consequences," said the foreign minister.
The joint control of Ukraine and Moldova over the Pridnestrovian border is the most serious challenge today to Pridnestrovie and the entire regional stability, he explains.
This purely political and deliberately discriminatory measure is undoubtedly aimed at the destruction of the PMR's economy. It will inevitably result in new restrictions on Pridnestrovian imports, effectively eliminating the sphere of individual entrepreneurship in the country and leaving over 50,000 citizens of the PMR without means of subsistence. In view of politically motivated prosecution by Moldova against over 50 Pridnestrovian businessmen, seizures of cargoes and other restrictions will await legal entities' imports as well. Freedom of movement of Pridnestrovian citizens will also be infringed as Moldovan border guards openly say they intend «to filter» Pridnestrovians crossing the Ukrainian border. The whole range of negative costs of joint control establishment will total more than $40 million a year by the most conservative estimates.
«The Moldovan side, however, as well as other international partners, with the exception of Russia. refuses to hear and very often to heed our arguments. It is naive to believe, at the same time, they do not take them seriously. On the contrary, the implications we are warning of are actually the tasks of the joint control project as the next phase of the strategy for destroying Pridnestrovie by non-military means," says Ignatyev.
In the meantime, the issue of joint control had never been discussed within the existing international negotiation process; in other words, the decision has been made outside its framework. This is a challenge to the current negotiating format, as it is moving from the «5 + 2» formula to a different dimension, where Ukraine, a guarantor country and a mediator, supports one of the parties to the conflict, the European Union, an observer, finances the new phase of the Pridnestrovian blockade and the OSCE, an international mediator, is stalling the negotiations, impeding the discussion of joint control in the «5 + 2» format and is openly marking time to enable Moldovan law enforcers to finally appear on the PMR's eastern border.
«In such circumstances, the destruction of the international negotiation format seems very likely, whereas a better alternative to it is yet to be devised," notes the diplomat.
Moreover, Ignatyev explains, joint control is a real threat to regional security as the Pridnestrovian-Ukrainian border is outside the jurisdiction of the peacekeeping operation, which means nothing will formally deter confrontation between Moldovan and Pridnestrovian law enforcers. This is particularly ominous in the light of increasing attacks by the Moldovan authorities against the Russian peacekeepers.
«Another serious challenge to us is an attempt by some Moldovan politicians to silence the really thorny issues and impose on Pridnestrovie as a 'generous gift' a morally outdated initiative on a joint state in which all the problems of Pridnestrovians would be magically resolved. As of today, if we throw away the husk of numerous slogans and empty declarations, Kishinev's only real policy aims to destroy the PMR. In this regard, this kind of good is clearly reminiscent of paving the road to hell," summarises the minister.
