The U.S. State Department's newly appointed special negotiator on Eurasian conflicts, Steven Mann, paid his first visit to Moldova on October 14-15. Mann, who has long experience with South Caucasus-Caspian energy affairs (a State Department post he continues to hold concurrently with the conflict-resolution post),... MORE

"Mediators" Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE are redoubling efforts to refloat the shipwrecked negotiations toward Moldova's federalization. Meeting on October 11-12 in Sofia at the initiative of the OSCE Chairmanship, the three mediators issued a joint statement urging Chisinau and Tiraspol to return to that... MORE

Even as President Vladimir Putin is liquidating Russia's federal system, Russia and the OSCE's American-led Moldova Mission persist with a U.S. State Department-approved project to appoint Russia as the main "guarantor" of a new Moldova-Trans-Dniester "federation." Moldova's appeals to ostracize Trans-Dniester's Russian-installed dictatorship and to... MORE

For the first time since 1991, a Moldovan president has boycotted a CIS summit, proclaiming a one-directional European orientation rather than balancing between Europe and Russia. Vladimir Voronin recently allowed Moldova's official media to criticize Russia for blocking a political settlement in Trans-Dniester and appealed... MORE

On August 21 and 27, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin announced that his government would no longer negotiate with Trans-Dniester's de facto rulers, and he criticized the "mediators" [Russia, Ukraine, OSCE] for condoning Tiraspol's repressive actions. The assault on the last few remaining Latin-script schools in... MORE

International organizations, as well as an indifferent U.S. State Department, are proving unable or unwilling to deal with "linguistic cleansing" in Trans-Dniester. All players involved are treating the Russian authorities' forcible closure of the last six Latin-script schools as an unwelcome distraction from negotiations toward... MORE

Addressing the OSCE Permanent Council's special session on Moldova, held in Vienna on July 22, U.S. Ambassador Stephan Minikes misinterpreted the recent assault on Moldovan schools in Trans-Dniester as a problem involving an ethnic minority. Minikes cast the issue in those terms no fewer than... MORE

On July 21, Moldova walked out of the "five-sided" negotiations on settling the Trans-Dniester conflict. That format practically excludes the West. On July 22-23, on President Vladimir Voronin's instructions, Moldovan officials called for consultations in a new format, with full-fledged Western participation including that of... MORE

Trans-Dniester's Russian-installed authorities -- chosen partners of the U.S. State Department and OSCE in the project to "federalize" Moldova -- seem bent on enforcing a complete prohibition on Latin script in the territory under their control. Moldovans form a plurality of the total population and... MORE

En route to Istanbul for the NATO summit, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stopped in Moldova and conferred with President Vladimir Voronin. Rumsfeld's formal purpose was to thank Moldova for contributing 44 de-mining specialists to the coalition force in Iraq until March, and its... MORE