TIRASPOL. Sept 26 (Interfax-AVN) - A Russian Defense Ministry delegation and officials from the unrecognized Transdnestrian Republic have failed to agree on the date to resume the removal of Russian ammunition from the republic, sources in the Tiraspol administration told Interfax on Thursday.
Russian Deputy Defense Ministers Vladimir Isakov and Lyubov Kudelina, Deputy Land Forces Commander in charge of peacekeeping units Valery Yevnevich, formerly commander of the Russian army group in the Transdnstrian region, in addition to Gazprom and Finance Ministry officials, made up the Russian delegation, the sources said. The talks lasted over ten hours on Wednesday and went on long past midnight. The delegation insisted on the immediate resumption of disposal of the ammunition.
The Russian delegation agreed to write off some of the Transdnestrian region's USD600m debt for gas supplies by way of compensation for the removal of defense hardware and ammunition. The Transdnestrians want the principal debt, USD350m, reduced by the amount regarded as compensation whereas the Russian Defense Ministry and Gazprom think that the principle debt could be reduced by USD50m and the penalties by another USD50m.
The two sides failed to work out a compromise or to agree on when the weapons removal could resume. "The matters were complicated by Transdnestrian leader Igor Smirnov's uncompromising position. He reiterated the view that the arms and ammunition in the region belong to the people of Transdnestria," a source said.
The talks will resume after a CIS summit in Chisinau. Before coming to Tiraspol, Yevnevich said that Russia will keep only peacekeeping units in the region before December 1, 2002.
At the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999, Russia promised to withdraw its troops from Moldova before the end of 2002.