Concerned about short-term results, "5 + 2" negotiators are often tempted to deliberately ignore or deliberately minimize the huge impact the Russian forces (GOTR) have on the dispositions of the population and elites in the negotiation process. The withdrawal of this military base from the constitutional territory of the Republic of Moldova is a crucial issue in the negotiation process, not a secondary one, as OSCE diplomats understand.

A study by Security Policy Expert Rosian Vasilovi, headed by IDIS headline "Keeping Russian Transdniestrian occupation troops: failure of the" caviar "diplomacy or contempt for international law," argues that the subject of unconditional evacuation of troops of the Russian occupation of the Republic of Moldova (the left bank of the Dniester region) is being uttered with close attention by the central authorities of the Republic of Moldova, almost half the mouth, although the Russian Federation officials say they do not intend to comply with the obligations assumed by the state at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul since 1999. The lack of respect for the sovereign right of the Republic of Moldova to independently manage its own internationally recognized territory invalidates the status of "mediator" in the negotiating format. Nevertheless, the Moldovan authorities do not use more forcefully and creatively the levers they have to make the subject of the withdrawal of Russian troops an international subject, resonating on the agenda of the Western chancelleries. The minor concessions that the participants in the "5 + 2" format and the politicization of the negotiation subject, and the obsolete paradigm by which the Chişinău Government usually, defensively and chaotically relate to issues of national interest, are to blame.

During the talks of March 27, 2018, several independent experts who participated in the presentation of the aforementioned topic reported the existence of real risks of escalating the conflict, the militarization of the Transnistrian region, which invests more than 1.4% of regional GDP in maintaining the army, but also the exponential growth (by 30% annually) of the number of military exercises on the GOTR platform, with the active participation of the Transnistrian army equipped with heavy equipment and diversionary units.

Civil society is alarming about the re-militarization of the Transnistrian region, and the fact that the resources collected by the secessionist administration from exports on the EU market fuel the arming of paramilitary forces and not the benefit of the population. Trends monitored in the study presented by IDIS show that the OSCE does not consistently pursue the accumulation of combat potential in the security zone, and only contemplates actual, not potential, risks in a territory extracting the influence of international conventions and constitutional law of the RM. Neither the Moldovan authorities do everything to block the re-militarization of the separatist region, which makes the process of chaotic regulation and dictated by tribal circumstances of political comfort, not the tasks that any government should pursue when the national territory is subjected to separatism movements, despite international law and the commitments that the OSCE should have instructed.

According to IDIS Viitorul director Igor Munteanu, "we are pursuing a certain form of ritualization of the" 5 + 2 "format, which engages in sophistication and does not help the sovereign state of Moldova to reintegrate a territory and a population belonging to it, starting from the fact that the central block is foreign military troops, corruption, the sponsorship of the separatist enclave by the Russian state, and not the lack of trust, or some license plates that the local population would need. It astonishes the cynicism with which certain foreign officials deal with the factors underlying the conflict on the left bank of the Dniester River, the complete absence from their view of the human rights dimension on the left bank of the Dniester, the political reprisals against Moldovan citizens, and the formidable blockages in the functioning of the JCC Transnistrian and Russian representatives ".

Many Moldovan citizens have rightly waited for the Government of Moldova to assume a unified reintegration policy in 2017, but this has not happened, and this weakens the position of the legitimate authorities of the country. "

Radu Burduja, the secretary of the Ministry of Defense, said that the Transnistrian issue has several issues and will be solved in stages. However, the presence of the military troops creates more threats to the security of the Republic of Moldova. It is a violation of the state's neutrality of the country through the presence of Russian troops. "

Event participants also asked questions and stated positions related to the topic discussed. And in conclusion, the author of the study affirmed the excessive militarization of the region that is used as a front for the Russian forces' military forces, the troops are ready for any conventional and unconventional operations. The Moldovan Government must reconfirm the official position of the Republic of Moldova, following the adoption of the Moldovan Parliament's Declaration, to ask the Russian Federation for the full, guaranteed guarantee of all military, ammunition and fighting technology in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova. The official position of the Republic of Moldova must maintain the principle that the complete and unconditional evacuation of the arsenal and the fighting technique includes unconditionally and the arms transferred illegally to the Transnistrian paramilitary forces.

Policy Brief can be downloaded here.

The study was conducted with the financial support of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a project of the German Marshall Fund.

For more details, you can contact us at the IDIS headquarters or by contacting the IDIS Viitorul Press Officer, Victor Ursu (tel.069017396 or ursu.victoor@gmail.com).