RUSSIA: Russian and Moldovan presidents discuss separatist Dnestr region

The presidents of Russia and Moldova met in Moscow on Tuesday (August 8, 2006) for talks expected to focus on Moldova's breakaway region of Dnestr. Russian media reports said President Vladimir Putin told his Moldovan counterpart Vladimir Voronin that Moscow was actively seeking a resolution of the conflict in the Dnestr region. The self-styled Dnestr republic, run by hardline Russian-speaking separatists since 1990, plans to hold a referendum in September on its full independence from Moldova. The European Union and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have been seeking to mediate in talks between the Moldovan government and the Dnestr rebels. The last round of talks on Dnestr were held in February, involving Ukraine, Russia, Moldovan and representatives of the breakaway region. Talks on the separatist issue, one of several "frozen conflicts" in ex-Soviet states, resumed in 2005 after a break of more than a year. Attended by Ukraine, Russia, the EU and the United States, the discussions have made little progress. The negotiations have focused on a Ukrainian plan to hold a free election in Dnestr. In 1990, Slavs in Dnestr declared independence on grounds that Moldova, then a Soviet republic, might join Romania to the west. But any such notion has long been abandoned. Dnestr and Moldova fought a brief war in 1992 after the end of Soviet rule. Russian troops separated the sides and still guard ammunition stockpiles despite Kremlin promises to leave.

ITN Source | August 10, 2006

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