Russia to EU: 'Hands off Moldova'
"You may claim that Moldova is an immediate neighbor of the EU, but so is Iraq in a certain manner after the opening of negotiations with Turkey," said Russia's EU Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov. Speaking at a conference examining EU-Russia relations following last week's London summit, Chizhov underlined the fundamental agreement between the EU and Russia. "The main thing is how to move forward."

The Russian ambassador, whilst welcoming EU and US involvement in negotiations on a settlement to Moldova's Transnistrian conflict, stressed the limits to expanded territorial discussions, especially with the Baltic states: "Border agreements are not a Russia-EU issue. They are bilateral matters between Russia and its neighbors."

So how long will Russian troops be in Moldova, five, ten or even twenty years? "The troops will certainly leave earlier than those stationed in Iraq," joked Chizhov at the Brussels think-tank European Policy Centre's conference. "Nobody wants to see these troops back home more than we do in Russia."

"Legally borders are a bilateral affair. But the EU is also a community and we cannot accept that some EU regions have less border security than others," said European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee President Elmar Brok.

Speaking alongside Chizhov, Brok stressed the 'relations of solidarity' between EU countries. "The EU is interested in clear borders. This is in our common interest. We shouldn't be asking whether a border problem is in our garden or in yours." MEP colleague and former Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis accused Russia of following a divide-and-rule policy.

"As to the EU's common border with Russia, Moscow has succeeded in splitting Europe and turning the issue not into an EU matter but that of the separate Member States on their own," said Landsbergis. "This is a major challenge for the EU. But in London at the EU-Russia summit, we failed."

There is, however, a growing EU presence in conflict regions such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, and Georgia. Last week, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner signed a memorandum of understanding with Moldova and Ukraine on a border assistance mission. Starting on 1 December, with €7 million and 50 observers for an initial 24 months, the mission aids border management, including customs, on the whole Moldova-Ukraine border.

"This will help prevent trafficking in people, smuggling of goods, the proliferation of weapons and customs fraud," said Ferrero-Waldner, speaking last week in Moldova. "We will deploy a number of mobile teams, consisting of approximately 50 border guards and customs officials from EU Member States, to the most relevant locations along the entire border, including the Transnistrian segment."

The break-away Transnistria regime in Tiraspol along Moldova's frontier with Ukraine has been led by Igor Smirnov. Backed by Moscow, Smirnov has held out against central authorities in Moldova since the early 1990s. "Moldova will be a neighbour when Romania joins. That is why Moldova is part of our neighbourhood policy. Obviously, it is in the EU's interest that our neighbors have safe and fixed borders," said EU External Relations Spokesperson Emma Udwin.

Russian EU Ambassador Chizhov plays down the significance of the former Soviet 14th Army in Moldova. "The presence of Russian troops in Moldova doesn't play any global or regional role. There are less than 1,100 Russian troops. Their primary task is to guard arms stockpiles on Transnistria terrority," said Chizhov. "But people in Transnistria also count on them as part of their security. So without a settlement it would be difficult to agree to a withdrawal."

For Chizhov, Russian troops in Moldova are peacekeepers, not occupying forces: "It would be so easy for the Russian troops to leave the arms and go home. Besides, more than half of the arms, and most of the heavy equipment, has been withdrawn since the end of the Soviet Union. When the political dialogue [between Transnistria and Moldovan authorities] was under way, the trains were leaving with arms once every five days. When the whole negotiation collapsed, the trains almost halted."

The Russian EU ambassador also made a plea for more EU coherency. "I would only welcome a more coherent EU policy on Russia," said Chizhov. "That would only make my job easier. But there is one condition: this policy should not deteriorate into the lowest common denominator."