Russian ambassador in Chisinau: Moldova's foreign minister is shunning me

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Ambassador of Russia in Moldova, Valery Kuzmin, has announced his willingness to meet with Foreign and European Integration Minister of Moldavia, Andrey Stratan, in order to receive a comment on Moldavian diplomat's claim during a meeting of OSCE leaders in Helsinki about ‘unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces out of Transdnestr'. The head of the Russian diplomatic mission made the announcement on December 12 during a meeting with Russian journalists in Kishinev, a REGNUM correspondent reports.

‘I would like to speak with Mr. Stratan‘, Kuzmin continues. ‘Moreover, I have got a corresponding order from Moscow. But Mr. Stratan has been hiding for five days already. Nevertheless, I hope that he will comment on his own viewpoint,' the Russian diplomat noted. In the same time, according to Kuzmin, this is not a new attitude of Moldavia. ‘Since the Transdnestr settlement gone to a deep recession (from 2003), this attitude had not brought in anything new,' the ambassador stressed.

According to him, ‘the peacemaking operation in Transdnestr is the most successful one in the last 20 years, from Darfur to East Timor'. ‘Peacekeepers are present in Transdnestr on the basis of an international agreement, that has not been abolished and not been denounced. This peacekeeping contingent is not Russian, but an international one. If one thinks theoretically about withdrawal of any of its components, then the whole layout of the peacekeeping operation would be violated,' the diplomat noted.----

As to the second aspect of the Russian military presence, it is symbolical and stabilizing by nature because these forces secure the ammunition not to be used, with no real chance to take ammunition out of the country. I.e. this little contingent has no heavy armament coming under any CFE provisions. This contingent means in fact that Russia does not allow to use this ammunition, while Tiraspol does not allow Russia to remove it. Such a stalemate has been lasting for many years. It should be noted that we have no interest in keeping this ammunition dump in the present place,' Valery Kuzmin summed up.