[0]

Russia's lower house of Parliament, the Duma, began hearings on closer ties with unrecognized countries in the ex-USSR

MOSCOW (Tiraspol Times) - On Thursday, the Russian State Duma began special parliamentary hearings on the territorial conflicts pending in the area of the former Soviet Union. The hearings were prompted by appeals to Russia requesting recognition of the independence of the Republic of Abkhazia, the Republic of South Ossetia, and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR, although better known under the unofficial name Transdniestria).

Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Pridnestrovie have been running their own affairs since declaring independence in the early 1990s. They do not have international recognition and the United States and European Union oppose independence for them, for reasons which are no longer clear in the wake of American and EU support for recent Kosovo's unilateral breakaway from Serbia.

Representatives from Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Pridnestrovie, located between Ukraine and Moldova, made appeals to Russian lawmakers in the hearing to recognize their independence.

They also said that a withdrawal of peacekeeping forces from the de facto independent republics could have disastrous consequences. In all three states, Russia supplies troops to help with peacekeeping duties within a multilateral format. In the case of Pridnestrovie, Russian servicemen outnumber those of Ukraine, but are a minority when compared to the number of peacekeepers provided to the joint taskforce by both Moldova and Pridnestrovie. The 56-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, is also part of the peacekeeping format in an overseer position.

Igor Smirnov excluded

From Tiraspol, Parliamentary Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk leads Pridnestrovie's delegation. Other delegates from Pridnestrovie include MP and Chairperson of the Legislation Committee Galina Antufeeva, the Parliamentary envoy for interparliamentary relations Grigory Marakutsa, the heads of the Russian, Moldovan and Ukrainian communities in Pridnestrovie, scientists from Pridnestrovie’s state university and members of the PMR Youth Parliament.

PMR President Igor Smirnov, while already in Moscow for a meeting of the Community for Democracy and Rights of Peoples (an international organization composed of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Pridnestrovie, ed.), was not chosen to be part of Pridnestrovie's delegation to the Duma hearings.

During the hearings, Russian Parliamentarians said Kosovo's self-declared independence from Serbia had created a legal precedent that forced Russia to change its stance, Reuters reported.

" - Our counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean have opened a Pandora's box [by recognizing Kosovo]," said Alexei Ostrovsky, chairman of the Duma's CIS Affairs Committee.

" - The world community should understand that from now on the resolution of conflicts in the ex-Soviet area cannot be seen in any other context from that of Kosovo," he said at the parliamentary hearing.

Upon completion of the hearings, the Duma, which is the Russian legislative assembly's lower chamber, will adopt a statement with recommendations for the Council of the Federation - the assembly's upper chamber, as well as for the Government of Russia, including its Foreign Ministry.

Recognition not guaranteed

Pridnestrovie and the two other states, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, are hoping for full and formal de jure diplomatic recognition of their current de facto independent status, similar to the recognition which the United States granted to the self-declared state of Kosovo, which unilaterally broke off from Serbia on 17 February 2008. However, over the issue of Kosovo, Russia has accused the U.S. of double standards for its refusal to use a similar approach to similar conflicts elsewhere, and some in the Duma are now fearful that Russian recognition of the three unrecognized countries nearer to Russia would prompt others to say that Russia, too, is guilty of a policy of double standards.

Instead of all-out de jure recognition, a more modest first step which is included in the recommendations drafted by Ostrovsky's committee include examining the possibility of opening diplomatic missions in the three unrecognized countries and boosting humanitarian and economic assistance.

" - We recommend that the Russian government consider opening missions on the territory of Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Alexei Ostrovsky, head of the commission for relations with ex-Soviet states, told reporters.

" - The foreign ministry will decide whether these representative offices should be consulates or otherwise," Ostrovsky said after the first parliamentary hearing in which some 300 lawmakers and officials took part.

The recommendations also include "examining the possibility of changing the format" of Russia's relations with Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Pridnestrovie. The document's authors say this could include granting recognition. (With information from Reuters)

See also:
» Alexei Ostrovsky: "Some political forces are ready to immediately recognize the unrecognized republics" [1]
» Transnistria asks int'l community for recognition as Europe's newest country [2]
» Russia ready to "reconsider stance" on Pridnestrovie and Abkhazia [3]