You're reading: OSCE envoy: Progress in Transnistria, but elsewhere Russia plays on weak leadership in West

While international attention is focused on the war in eastern Ukraine, another Russia-backed separatist conflict has been smoldering almost unnoticed on Ukraine’s western borders – in Moldova.

After almost three decades in an unresolved standoff, Moldova and its eastern breakaway territory of Transnistria have finally made some progress in negotiations, Franco Frattini, the OSCE envoy to the Transnistrian settlement process, said in an interview with the Kyiv Post on the sidelines of the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv on Sept. 14.

Frattini, a former Italian foreign minister, took the office in January, as Italy chairs the OSCE this year.

Promoting dialogue, responsibility, and ownership is the key approach of Italy’s presidency in the OSCE, Frattini said, and alleviating the suffering of civilians while the conflicting sides seek political consensus is a crucial part of any peace process.

Small steps forward in Moldova

Transnistria, a stretch of Moldovan territory on the border with Ukraine, declared independence from Moldova in 1990. It was preceded by changes in law that made Moldovan an official language and adopted a Latin-script Romanian alphabet. This sparked fears among the Russian-speaking population of Transnistria that Chisinau would seek unification with Romania.

The breakaway escalated into a military conflict in 1992 that killed, by various estimates, from 600 to 1,000 people. The Russian army and volunteer fighters from Russia backed the Transnistrian separatist forces. The war lasted for four months and ended with a ceasefire followed by an agreement that Russian, Moldovan, and Transnistrian peacekeepers would work under a joint command.

Today, Transnistria is an internationally unrecognized state with a de facto capital in Tiraspol, and its own government.

So far, the main dispute remains around Transnistria’s political status. Its authorities insist on sovereignty, while Chisinau agrees to grant the region a special status of an autonomous unit similar to another Moldovan region, Gagauzia.

OSCE envoy Frattini said Chisinau and Tiraspol have made some progress since the last meeting of the 5+2 group — which includes the conflicting sides as well as Ukraine, Russia, the EU, the United States, and the OSCE as observers — in Rome in May.

The accomplishments are mundane, but important.

According to Frattini, the OSCE opened an Italian-funded center that issues neutral-status car and motorcycle license plates, which now allow drivers to freely cross the border between Moldova and Transnistria.

Now, 82 percent of farms in the border area of Dubăsari have been returned to their legitimate owners – Moldovan farmers who had no access to their land in Transnistria.

Moreover, Tiraspol reportedly agreed to allow children and teachers to freely cross border checkpoints to attend Latin-script schools in Moldova-controlled territory, Frattini told the Kyiv Post.

Other issues on the negotiating table are the recognition of Transnistrian university diplomas by Moldova and lifting a mutually imposed telecommunications blockade.

In mid-August, Ukraine and Moldova sounded the alarm about military drills held by Russian troops in the demilitarized zone of Transnistria without the permission of the three-party joint command. The OSCE special monitoring mission to Moldova was reportedly not allowed to carry out full monitoring on site.

“They were not Russian peacekeepers,” said Frattini. “I raised the issue of the presence of Russian military troops twice with (Russian Foreign Minister) Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.”

“But I encourage to pass the message to Kyiv and Moscow to eschew from any kind of messages or actions that would pose a risk of escalation in Transnistria, especially now, when we are finally making progress with good cooperation of Russia and Ukraine at the same time,” he added.

Stalled peace talks in Ukraine

Ukraine has always supported Moldova’s territorial integrity. Most recently, two nations opened a joint border crossing checkpoint on the Transnistrian section of the border, much to the separatists’ discontent. Moreover, Transnistrian companies willing to export to Ukraine must be registered with Moldova’s authorizing bodies.

But since Russia launched its war in the Donbas and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Moldova’s struggle to reintegrate a breakaway region backed by Russia has resonated with Ukraine.

The Minsk peace process to stop the war in the Donbas and restore Ukrainian borders have been stalled raising fears that it might turn into a frozen conflict similar to Transnistria.

This problem is, in part, caused by weak political leadership and a lack of unity among Ukraine’s allies, Frattini believes.

“Putin, whether we like it or not, is a strong leader, and we need another group of strong leaders who will be able to be a viable counterpart to Russia,” he told the Kyiv Post. “I don’t see U.S. President Donald Trump being able to add value to unblock the crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is weaker than before. Europe is facing its own problems, and it’s clear that Russia is taking the opportunity.”

Indeed, Europe’s unity on Russia has been frayed by the rise of populist forces in Hungary, Poland, and even Italy.

The current Italian government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has taken a pro-Russian stance calling the leaders of the Group of Seven nations to re-admit Russia and review the EU sanctions imposed in response to the annexation of Crimea.

Frattini admitted that the situation is becoming untenable as “national egoism, populism, and divergences are increasing in Europe and (making) it weaker.”

“So far I see that Europe (has been) unable to respond from the political point of view,” he said.

The Transnistrian dispute is far from resolution, and so is the Donbas war. But Frattini believes Kyiv can take some lessons from the settlement process over the breakaway Moldovan region.

“Ukraine can learn to prepare an agenda on the basis of what is achievable today, while discussing at the political level what is achievable tomorrow,” Frattini said.

“I don’t think we will solve the top political issues in such serious crisis (in eastern Ukraine) overnight. But we can solve daily life problems for people,” he said. “There’s an issue of demining the territory and a big need for humanitarian aid.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Matthew Kupfer contributed to this report.