Free Republic

WASHINGTON Romanian President Traian Basescu took aim Tuesday at Russia, indirectly accusing the country of benefiting from the continuing "frozen conflicts" in countries such as Georgia and Moldova. "The single winner of the extended period of having frozen conflicts is the country which doesn't like to have democratic development," Basescu said. "It is the country which still continues to believe that different countries can be controlled for next decade or for the next century," he said. Basescu's comments were delivered via an international video hookup in Bucharest to a gathering of experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies...

Montenegro's independence could open a Pandora's box for other separatist movements in Europe and the former Soviet Union, with some already claiming the right to follow the same path. Separatists in Spain's Basque and Catalan regions were among the first to welcome Montenegro's independence vote as a positive omen for their aspirations of loosening ties with Madrid. But Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos stressed the situations in his country and Montenegro were "politically, diplomatically, juridically" incomparable and that making such a comparison would represent a "great irresponsibility". His view was supported by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana,...

Moscow has made a priority of countering Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's pro-Western agenda and keeping Kiev in Moscow's sphere of influence at all costs. Russia is hoping to strengthen its hold over Ukraine during the latter's March 26 parliamentary elections, which will essentially be a re-match of Yushchenko and his Russian-supported former presidential opponent, Viktor Yanukovich. Yushchenko, meanwhile, is attempting to reinforce Kiev's Western connections by pushing for NATO membership and strengthening ties with the European Union and the United States. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on March 6 lauded Ukraine on its enforcement of the border agreement with...

An obscure arms deal from nine years ago has produced a major human rights case in the former Soviet country of Moldova, challenging the U.S. government to stand up for its own good name as well as for the rule of law. The case centers on the conviction Jan. 16 of the former Moldovan defense minister, Valeriu Pasat, and his sentence to 10 years in a hard-labor penal camp. Pasat's ostensible offense was to sell 21 MiG-29 fighter aircraft to the Pentagon in 1997 for $40 million. The prosecution alleged the planes were worth $55 million more and thus Pasat...

Ljubljana, 6 December (RFE/RL) -- The United States has told Moscow that it will not sign a new treaty on conventional military forces until Russia withdraws all its troops and equipment from separatist republics in Georgia and Moldova. The U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, Nicholas Burns, said today at a meeting of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana that it was impossible to reconcile the continued presence of Russian troops with the arms treaty. "A basic principle of the CFE (Conventional Forces Europe) Treaty is the right of sovereign states...

The official Chisinau is in possession of documents indicating that weapons from Transnistria were supplied to Iraq, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin stated to Russian journalists who are paying a 5-day-long working visit to this republic on the Moldovan leadership's invitation. "We have sent to Russia a file with documents on the directions of arms exports from Transnistria. According to the data available with us, 13 Transnistrian industrial enterprises manufacture armaments continuously. We have a document from the Presidential Office of Saddam Hussein's certifying that weapons from Transnistria used to be imported to Iraq. Now we are scrutinizing this", Voronin...

CHISINAU. Oct 27 (Interfax) - Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev thinks that armaments from Russian stockpiles in Transdniestria might have been shipped to Chechen militants and, probably, Beslan. "Unfortunately, as far as we know, some armaments from the Russian depots in Transdniestria have been sent to Chechnya and some allegedly went to militants in Beslan," he told the Russian press in Chisinau on Thursday. "We must finally eliminate this source of arms for separatists and terrorists," he said.

On October 15 in Moscow, officials from the presidential administration and other Kremlin-connected figures hosted a "Forum on Democracy and Multiculturalism in the Euro-East." The participants included representatives of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and Karabakh, activists of pro-Russia parties and associations from several post-Soviet countries, and Moscow figures who -- according to Kremlin consultant Gleb Pavlovsky, speaking at the Forum -- "play a major if often shadowy role in developing Russia's real policy" (Regnum, October 15). Outlining geopolitical challenges and opportunities to Russia, Pavlovsky noted that the United States is focusing its hostile attention on Belarus, "our basic military-political ally."...

The leadership of this country has a remarkable knack for making the same mistake over and over. On a trip to the Far East last week, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced that the Army had no intention of pulling out of the self-proclaimed republic of Transdnestr. Until Russia's huge stockpiles of arms and equipment were removed, Russian troops would remain in the republic even if the Moldovan authorities ordered them to leave, Ivanov said. Ivanov had apparently forgotten that top Kremlin officials recently insisted that the closure of two Russian military bases in Georgia would take 10 to 12 years....

Sitting in a cafe on Lenin Street, next to three smartly turned-out female officers in dark green KGB uniforms, I had this wild thought: can the Soviet Union join the European Union? For the surreal breakaway para-state of Transnistria on the east bank of the river Dniestr looks at first glance like a miniature version of the old Soviet Union. In the heart of the capital, Tiraspol, a giant redstone Lenin stands proudly before the Supreme Soviet. Across 25 October Street, named for the Russian revolution of 1917, is the obligatory tank on a plinth. In the House of Pioneers...

There are almost 200 official countries in the world but there are dozens more unrecognised nations determined to be independent. They have rulers, parliaments and armies, but they rarely feature on maps and receive few foreign visitors. The leaders of Trans-Dniester gather to watch Independence Day celebrations Trans-Dniester broke away from Moldovan control in 1990 The detention cells in the KGB secret police headquarters in Trans-Dniester - which lies between Moldova and Ukraine - are not the ideal place to spend a Saturday night. Perhaps I have seen too many Cold War thrillers, but after a BBC film crew and...

Transnistria: a region on the verge of its umpteenth civil war where time seems to stand still.Transnistria is one of many self-proclaimed independent republics within the territories created after the break-up the Soviet Union. The Transnistrian region (population: 700,000; capital: Tiraspol) is a sliver of land situated between the Dniester River and Ukraine. Old manufacturing infrastructure dominates the region’s interior, reflecting its roots as a Soviet industrial district. Its demand for independence differs from that of South Ossetia or Abkhazia (both states which are not internationally recognized) in the sense that Transnistria faithfully retains the cultural and military characteristics of...

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA—At the checkpoint where my car is stopped, it is pretty clear from those in attendance—in assorted military garb or the ill-fitting suits that remain the uniform of the lower ranks of the successor organizations to the KGB—that there is a list inside the guardhouse with my name on it. So I will not, after all, be visiting Transnistria, the region of the former Soviet republic of Moldova that saw the worst violence in the breakup of the USSR and remains under the control of a local strongman, Igor Smirnov, who maintains his Stalinist grip thanks to an extensive...