In his words, Russia has failed to receive any serious argument opposing the so-called "Kozak Memorandum", which was jointly drafted on the request of the conflicting parties themselves over the last 12 months. Russia would like to know what specific provisions of this memorandum don't suit our partners, and why the signing of the document which had already been initialed by the sides was thwarted.
Mr. Lavrov believes that, but for that setback, the conflict would have been settled a long time ago; among other things, this concerns the removal of all remaining ammunition from the Dniester area.
Talking about international conflict-settlement guarantees, the Russian Foreign Minister noted that Russia was still ready to sign the stability-and-security pact for the Republic of Moldova, i.e. its initial version that was suggested by President Vladimir Voronin. This can be done, provided that this document enters into force right after the Dniester-area problem's political settlement, Mr. Lavrov went on to say.
According to Mr. Lavrov, various foreign comments (whose secrecy is something inexplicable) dealing with the Council of Foreign Ministers' declaration on this issue highlight an attempt to emasculate the content of basic political-settlement elements and to exclude one of the parties from the settlement; this runs counter to all existing decisions and common sense, Mr. Lavrov stressed. Such a declaration would have minimal or, maybe, even negative added value, the Russian Foreign Minister went on to say.
In his words, there is only one way to deal with the current impasse. Political maneuvers concerning an artificial search for new conflict-settlement formats must be discarded; moreover, the sides must be convinced that they must jointly finalize their co-existence concept under the auspices of three mediators, namely, Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE.
