Moscow is not expecting any breakthrough from the upcoming Vienna consultations on the Transdniestrian conflict because the position of Moldova's Acting President Mihai Ghimpu does not facilitate the reconciliation of the parties' positions.
"For now any breakthrough is unlikely," Russian Foreign Ministry’s Special Envoy Sergei Gubarev told the Kommersant daily.
The Transdniestrian consultations are held in the five plus two format (Moldova, Transdniestria, Russia, Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and the United States). Their next round is expected to be held in Vienna on July 7.
One of the reasons is that neither Chisinau, nor Tiraspol have changed their approaches towards the settlement of the conflict for many years, Gubarev told the newspaper. In particular, Moldova relies on the 2005 law, which assigns a special status to Transdniestria as part of Moldova, while the Tiraspol authorities point to the 2006 referendum, when most Transdniestrians favored the independence of the breakaway republic and its subsequent accession to Russia.
An even more serious impediment to reconciling the polar positions of the conflicting parties is the policy conducted by Moldova’s Acting President Mihai Ghimpu, who launched an overt confrontation with Russia by issuing a decree about "Soviet Occupation Day" (June 28), Kommersant wrote.
