MOSCOW, March 6 (RIA Novosti, Natalia Belova) - The current economic dispute between Moldova and Transdnestr will have a negative impact on negotiations over the status of the self-proclaimed republic, a senior Russian diplomat said Monday.
"The current developments and a future deterioration of the confrontation on economic issues will affect the negotiation process, which was resumed with many difficulties," said Russia's Ambassador at Large Valery Nesterushkin in the wake of Ukraine's decision to impose customs controls on all goods passing through the Ukrainian-Transdnestr border.
On March 3, Ukrainian customs service head Alexander Yegorov signed a regulation stipulating that all the cargoes crossing the Ukrainian-Transdnestr border must undergo customs registration in Moldova and not in Transdnestr.
Transdnestr responded by blocking cargo transit to and from Moldova. On Sunday, Transdnestr President Igor Smirnov set up an interdepartmental council to counter what he said were "blockade measures" by Ukraine and Moldova, and 16 public organizations in the region established an anti-blockade coordinating council Monday.
Also Monday, Moldovan Railroads started sending cargo around Transdnestr. It denied Transdnestr media reports that it refused to transit cargoes through Transdnestr as "contradicting reality".
The diplomat said Moldova's move was an attempt to exercise legal pressure on Transdnestr without prior agreements or consultations with the breakaway region's authorities and economic agents.
"It is an erroneous approach that could lead to serious consequences," he said.
"Certain steps are being made to improve the situation," Nesterushkin said. "It is important now...to make concrete efforts to avoid a further escalation of the situation and its transformation into a large-scale humanitarian disaster."
The Russian diplomat said the Transdnestr leadership had issued warnings on numerous occasions that political dialogue was impossible under economic pressure from Moldova.
A Russian delegation will visit Transdnestr this week to discuss ways of ending the ongoing impasse between Moldova and the breakaway region, a government source said Monday.
Transdnestr's status has been a bone of contention since the armed conflict in the region, which has a predominantly Russian population, broke out in March 1992 after Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union and Transdnestr in turn proclaimed itself a republic. Russia intervened in the conflict at the Moldovan president's request, and the Russian and Moldovan presidents signed a ceasefire agreement in the presence of the leader of Transdnestr in July 1992.
