MOSCOW, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is considering the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's plan for the Transdnestr region, a self-proclaimed republic in Moldova, and is willing to use it as a starting point, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
"We are currently working together with our Ukrainian colleagues on Yushchenko's plan. It is based on many principles, which have been already approved by the different parties. These principles must be worked out in detail on the basis of the Kozak memorandum," he said.
Lavrov said Moldovan authorities' attempts to settle the issue without the participation of Transdnestr representatives would not be successful.
"None of the conflicts in the history of civilization were settled this way. The involved parties must sit at the negotiating table and the intermediaries can only offer help," Lavrov said.
"It seems that Moldova selected a course to economically suffocate the Transdnestr region and is trying to settle the issue by using non-peaceful, undiplomatic and non-political methods," he said.
The Ukrainian plan consists of seven provisions and was presented by Yushchenko in April this year in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau.
In accordance with the plan, the region's administration must create the necessary conditions for the development of civil society and a multiparty system in the republic. The region should hold direct democratic elections to the Supreme Council, and the elections must be controlled by the European Union, OSCE, Russia, the United States and Ukraine. The plan also envisages the transformation of the peacekeeping forces into an international mechanism and the expansion of the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent. The region should allow Ukrainian specialists to monitor military-industrial complex facilities.
There is also a proposal to form a monitoring group within the framework of the OSCE and other international organizations for control over the transit of cargo on the region border with Ukraine. According to the plan, Ukraine is ready to support the United States and the EU in their efforts to settle the issue.
