MEDIATORS WATCH ANOTHER SETBACK TO CHISINAU-TIRASPOL TALKS.

The leaders of Transdniester canceled a meeting scheduled for January 31 with Moldova’s top leadership. The meeting was to have discussed the resumption of political negotiations toward a settlement of the Transdniester conflict. Tiraspol justified its decision to back out of the talks by citing Chisinau’s refusal to countenance the introduction of a separate Transdniester currency. At a briefing in Chisinau, Moldovan parliament chairman Petru Lucinschi expressed concern that Transdniester was holding up negotiations in the hope that Communists or ultranationalist forces would capture Russia’s presidency in the June election. Lucinschi urged the OSCE, Moscow, and Kiev to take their mediating role seriously instead of remaining passive spectators at the deadlocked talks. (17)

Russian president Boris Yeltsin appointed ambassador Yuri Karlov last month as his personal envoy and mediator to the talks. Ukraine, which assumed a mediating role last year, has yet to make its presence felt, although its own security interests require an early settlement of the conflict as well as demilitarization of Transdniester. President Leonid Kuchma’s personal envoy and mediator, Volodymyr Furkalo, has just received another appointment, necessitating his replacement and thus further delaying Ukraine’s effective participation. The OSCE mission in Chisinau has been severely hampered in its role by a variety of institutional and international constraints.

Azeri President Rules Out Russian Basing Rights at Gabala.