While at the negotiation table, the host Party will raise the issue of ethnic Russians' situation and consular services in Transdniestria, said Alexander Yakovenko, spokesman of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He was referring to an area along the left Dniester bank. Russian speakers make a majority of its multiethnic population. Transdniestria seceded from Moldova in the early 1990s, and remains an unrecognised republic.
Russia guarantees and co-mediates Transdniester settlement, pointed out Mr. Yakovenko. The Moscow negotiation agenda envisages a detailed discussion of current developments in the area. Russia clings to its previous stance-settlement is to proceed from Moldovan sovereignty and territorial integrity, on the one hand, and provide Transdniestria a well-coordinated and reliably guaranteed status, on the other.
There was a chance to make a breakthrough toward that goal. That chance was missed, November last, as President Vladimir Voronin of Moldova made a last-instant refusal to sign a memorandum he himself had initialled. The memo concerned Transdniester settlement, and envisaged an "asymmetric" federation established in Moldova. Russia is now referring to compromise decisions made with its assistance previously. As Moscow sees it, compliance with those decisions promises to come at final resolutions, and work out guarantees of their implementation, in a way that would promote either side's interests.
Russian negotiators are also determined to discuss ethnic Russians' situation in Moldova, and demand consular services improved for Russian nationals resident in Transdniestria, added the diplomat.
