The Russian Investigative Committee's attention to members of Transdniestrian leader Igor Smirnov's family, and Moscow's decision to suspend granting Russian citizenship to residents of the breakaway republic, have facilitated a resumption of the dialogue between Tiraspol and Chisinau, the daily Kommersant writes on Sept. 12.
"We have no instrument to this day that would allow us to move along the settlement track. Our unofficial meetings do not give us the opportunity to adopt legally binding documents. Our return to the negotiating table means that we are getting an instrument that will allow us to continue the work," told Russian special envoy Sergei Gubarev.
Talks in the 5+2 format are to resume in Moscow on Sept. 22, it was announced after an international conference on the assessment of trust-building measures, applied in the Transdniestria settlement under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s aegis and with the participation of Russia, Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, Moldova and Transdniestria.
Gubarev, who took part in the conference, said that unlike at the previous meeting in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, now "the participants outlined an agenda of the current problems and mapped out ways to settle them."
Moscow played the key role in getting Smirnov to continue the talks, he said.
In August, the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Investigations Department launched a check into an alleged mishandling of Russian financial aid to Transdniestrian and into a reported involvement of Smirnov’s family members in it, Kommersant writes.
Last week, the chief of the consular service of the Russian Embassy in Moldova, Dmitry Baranov, said that Russia was suspending the issuance of Russian citizenship in Transdniestrian, and that those in need of it must travel to Chisinau.
Although the Russian Embassy told Kommersant that it was only a recommendation, officials in Tiraspol got nervous as most of them have Russian passports, while some, among them Smirnov and his wife Zhanetta, have permits to reside in the Moscow region.
Anyway, Moscow’s resolve seems to have had its effect on the Transdniestrian president, the newspaper says.
