Moldavian expert: Ukraine cannot be a guarantor in the Transdnestr conflict settlement any longer

Read it in Russian

“The gas crisis, which endangered physical survival of people not only in the closest Ukrainian neighbor countries, Moldavia and Transdnestr, but also in many European countries, has finally corroborated what was obvious and well known: Ukraine is inconsistent as a state,” Moldavian historian and political scientist Oles Stan said to a REGNUM correspondent during an interview on January 13.

“By its action, the Ukrainian government has not only once again delayed the perspective of the country joining the EU and NATO, but also buried even such a possibility, as well as a possibility of its further existence as an independent state,” Stan continued. “Up to now, the only sense of Ukraine's existence attached to it by Western Europe and USA was playing dirty tricks on Russia. But after Ukraine started making mischief towards Europe, it had broken limits of its appointed function, so, the EU, which contrary to Russia has no 'historical' or 'fraternal' bonds with Ukraine, will not excuse Ukraine for it. Though the US support is being rendered yet, it will not save Kiev. Europe, whose citizens are condemned by Ukraine to freeze, in this situation, will not obey Washington, which in its turn is busy with changing its administration and with its own economic problems, and which will hardly prefer loyalty of Kiev to the loyalty of Brussels. In fact, in January 2009, Yushchenko has put himself into the same situation to his Western patrons like Saakashvili did in August 2008. Following Saakashvili, Yushchenko let them down and there's no doubt that they will ‘scam' him, like they did it with Saakashvili, taking into consideration, that the South-Ossetian war concerned mostly political interests of the West, while the so-called gas crisis directly endangered the economical and social stability of Europe.”

“The fact, that the Ukrainian government is incapable of coming to an agreement and is inconsistent, has raised another, a regional one, aspect on the agenda. It is absolutely obvious that Ukraine, which put Transdnestr on the verge of a humanitarian disaster and once again ‘surprised’ the Moldavian government, failing to deliver the gas it promised yesterday, can no longer be a guarantor in the Transdnestr conflict settlement. I am sure that Moscow will in the near future induce Tiraspol to raise this problem. And in the context of the recent events, the EU and the OSCE will hardly oppose the initiative to exclude Kiev from the negotiations around the Transdnestr settlement,” the Moldavian expert believes.

“It would be a single local aspect of the coming disintegration of Ukraine, however. I think international observers' mission called upon to control the Ukrainian gas transporting system is only the first step to establish an external political and administrative control over Ukrainian territories with consequent division between interested parties. It also needs to be reminded that Moldavian territories, namely Southern Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, being the part of Chernovtsy and Odessa provinces, make Moldavia to be an interested party too,” Oles Stan concluded.