BRUSSELS. Nov 13 (Interfax) - Moldova's compliance with the terms of its association with the European Union without consultations with Transdniestria will weaken Moldovan statehood, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.
"The Russian Federation has always emphasized its adherence to the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova. Yet we certainly cannot support steps towards settling economic problems, which are taken only on one bank of the Dniester River and practically turn the other bank into a detached observer doomed to be under a direct economic blockade; we think they may lead to new dramatic [events in relations] between the two parts of the same country," Rogozin said at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels on Tuesday.
He said he was especially worried about the regional situation in the context of the Eastern Partnership program.
"The Russian Federation has been strictly fulfilling its role of an international mediator and peacekeeper in the region, where blood was spilled, for more than two decades. The blood was spilled in spring and early summer of 1992. A new generation has grown up in the two parts of the former Soviet Moldova since then; they have no contact with each other, they do not know each other," the deputy prime minister said.
"Being a special representative of the Russian president, I would like to warn you, esteemed colleagues, that we should be wise and reasonable and prevent any escalation of tensions in the regions that we call frozen conflicts," Rogozin said.
It is a difficult task to "unfreeze" conflicts, and Moscow has consistently explained to Chisinau the need to involve the Transdniestrian administration in direct contacts and in dialogues on adjusting status of Moldova, he said.
Transdniestrian President Yevgeny Shevchuk demanded from Chisinau time and again that "a dialogue be started about the future Chisinau envisions for the territory of the former Soviet Moldova without holding consultations with the largest and most industrially developed part of that country, Transdniestria," he said.
The absence of this dialogue will widen the gap between the two parts of one country, the deputy prime minister said.
"The issue requires a very thorough analysis, consideration and dialogue, first and foremost, between Tiraspol and Chisinau," he said.
"The absence of this dialogue is fraught with lack of trust, which will have consequences," Rogozin said.
Responding to the opinion of a Moldovan diplomat who described the deployment of Russian peacekeepers in Moldova as an act of occupation, the deputy prime minister recalled that 700,000 labor migrants from Moldova have taken permanent residence in Russia and that their earnings make up a significant part of the Moldovan state budget. Rogozin said that the number of Moldovan migrant workers was much smaller in the European Union, with which Moldova planned to associate itself.