Transnistria Leader Urges Russia to Review All Deals on Republic’s Peace

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Vadim Krasnoselsky, the president of Transnistria, urged Russia on Wednesday to review all Transnistrian peace pacts with Moldova and neighboring Ukraine, in an interview with a Russian newspaper.

"Almost none of them [deals] have been adhered to by the Moldovan side. I am calling on the guarantors of the Moldovan-Transnistrian peace – Russia and Ukraine – please, review all agreements with the OSCE’s help to see who is not living up to them and make them abide by them using all possible sanctions," Krasnoselsky told the Izvestiya newspaper.

Krasnoselsky also asked Russia to assess the legality of a ban on cars with the republic’s license plates that comes into being next month in Moldova and Ukraine.

Speaking with Russia’s Izvestiya newspaper, Krasnoselsky said his Moldovan counterpart had confirmed that Moldova and Ukraine planned to end transit of Transnistria-registered cars through their territories starting on July 1.

"There are 220,000 Russian citizens living in Transnistria," Krasnoselsky told the outlet. "They must be protected by Russian laws. I am calling on Russia to give a legal assessment [of the ban]."

The Transnistrian conflict began in 1990 when the region, with its predominantly Russian and Ukrainian population, seceded from the Soviet Republic of Moldova for fear of Moldova's potential unification with Romania. The separation led to a conflict that ended in a ceasefire declared on July 21, 1992. Despite this fact, the conflict remains unresolved.

Since 2005, the talks on the Transnistria conflict's settlement have been held in the 5+2 format, which, apart from Transnistria and Moldova, includes the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Russia, Ukraine, the European Union and the United States as mediators. The latest round was held on June 2-3, 2016 in Berlin.