TIRASPOL, March 23 (RIA Novosti) - Conflict mediators from Russia and the breakaway Transdnestr Republic in Moldova have decided to convene an urgent meeting to discuss Moldova's threats to step up the police presence in the self-proclaimed republic.
The emergency session scheduled for March 28 will gather delegates from Russia and Transdnestr in the Joint Control Commission, a body that was set up in the early 1990s to coordinate peace-keeping efforts in the conflict zone, the commission's press service said. The commission includes all three parties, but Moldova stopped attending sessions in October 2005 and is not expected to attend this time either.
The emergency meeting was called out of concern over promises made by the Moldovan police to increase its presence in the Transdnestrian city of Bendery in response to the local administration's criticism of the presence of 400 Moldovan police officers in the city.
"We have a letter to the joint peacekeeping command which says that Moldova could reinforce its contingent in Bendery, and it caused us concern," Viktor Shanin, the Russian co-chairman of the commission, said.
He added that such moves could only be made with the commission's permission and not unilaterally.
In a letter in mid-March, the Moldovan police commissioner in Bendery, Valery Prudnikov, accused Mayor Alexander Posudnevsky of deliberately flaring tensions over Moldovan police presence in the city. He said the mayor's complaints were ungrounded and contradictory to the 1992 ceasefire agreement.
"We understand that the current economic [crisis] situation in Transdnestr was created artificially by local authorities," Prudnikov said, adding that these steps sought to distract attention from the internal problems in the unrecognized republic.
His words were an apparent reference to the critical situation in the republic resulting from Ukraine's new customs regulations introduced at Moldova's request on March 3. All Transdnestr goods bound for Ukraine are now required to have an official Moldovan stamp, which some Russian politicians have said amounts to an economic blockade of the region.
The police commissioner said that any dramatic developments in the situation would lead to an increased police presence in the area.
This move is the latest flare-up in the conflict over Transdnestr's status since an armed conflict broke out in March 1992, when 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.
