MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) - The spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Russia's humanitarian aid to the breakaway Moldovan region of Transdnestr should cause Chisinau and Kiev to consider their actions in light of common interests to preserve stability in the region.
"Russia's readiness to help the elderly, children and the needy in Transdnestr should be taken as...a direct appeal to Moldovan and Ukrainian authorities to weigh their actions against common interests in preserving stability as well as providing civil and inter-ethnic harmony, peace and order in the region," Mikhail Kamynin said.
Russia sent humanitarian aid to Transdnestr after local authorities reported huge economic losses and said the republic was facing a humanitarian catastrophe following the imposition of new customs regulations requiring that all goods from the region bound for Ukraine have an official Moldovan stamp.
Kamynin said the first humanitarian convoy from Moscow to Transdnestr had been rendered as Russian support of a separatist regime and ultimately a propaganda move.
The official said the decision to provide aid had been made on the assumption that Transdnestr would lose the external financial sources needed to form its own budget and, facing possible social unrest, could undergo a change of leadership.
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.
