 | COMMUNISM IS DEAD: Today it has been replaced with freedom, market reforms and grassroots democracy in Pridnestrovie. Will its Soviet past be missed? [more] |  | | |  | "THEY BEAT US UP" ... 18 years ago, minority members from Pridnestrovie were part of Moldova's Parliament. They ended up in the hospital. [more] |
| ||||||
Neither Kosovo nor Transdniestria unique, says head of Foreign Affairs Committee
The chair of Russia's Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, rejects what he sees as the West's double standards. He says there is nothing significantly "unique" about Kosovo that should also not apply to Transdniestria, Abkhazia and other post-Soviet conflicts. The only difference is in how the latter countries view NATO.
Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russian State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee (file photo)MOSCOW (Tiraspol Times) - The chair of the Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, said that the Western approach towards the so-called frozen conflicts is based on only one criterion: "the position of those countries and nations where the conflicts exist, towards the West and NATO."
" - With regards to two conflict situations, Kosovo and Northern Cyprus, the West is acting one way by not insisting on the strict respect of the principle of territorial integrity. But with regards to all the other conflicts, it is acting in a totally different manner and is basing its position on that very principle," Kosachev said in an article for the Rossiyskaya Gazetta daily.
Unlike Kosovo, which has long been a part of independent Yugoslavia and its successor state, independent Serbia, Pridnestrovie (Transdniestria) has never been part of any independent or sovereign Moldova at any time in history.
When Moldova was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, it was added to already-Soviet Pridnestrovie to form the MSSR, a Soviet republic. Pridnestrovie declared independence from the MSSR in 1990, and declined to join in the newly created Republic of Moldova which declared independence one year later, in 1991. Since then, Moldova has refused to abide by referendums on the issue or respect the right of its neighboring population to selfdetermination.
- Don't play favorites
According to the leading politician, Russia's European partners are striving to view as "frozen" only the territorial conflicts involving Pridnestrovie (also commonly known as Transdniestria or Transnistria, both unofficial names), Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
At the same time, they are tacitly allowing themselves the right to resolve other cases "within the secret confines of the European Union."
Kosachev rejected as unconvincing the claim about the existence of principled differences between the "post-Soviet" and all other conflicts, and said that arguments are reduced to "mantras" about the "uniqueness" of the Kosovo crisis.
" - The sole criterion for the different approaches of the Western countries to the issue of frozen conflicts, no matter how paradoxically it seems, is centered on NATO and the position that the countries and nations linked to the conflicts have to it," said Kosachev, who is also a senior official of the ruling United Russia party.
See also:
» Russia: First, solve older self-determination issues before Kosovo
» Transdniester and Kosovo should be treated the same, says Putin
» "Transnistria independence before Kosovo" says top Washington expert
A conference held at the European Parliament in Brussels concluded that unrecognized states like Pridnestrovie need a way to be heard by the world. "It is necessary to create and sustain permanent mechanisms of involvement and consultation of unrecognized state entities in the international community". This will benefit everyone, says the event's official statement. . . 
