Since the beginning of this year, Ukraine received the chairmanship of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). And, according to the established tradition, in the first month of their new work, representatives of the political elites of the country chairing the OSCE began a kind of monitoring of the situation in those European regions that have the status of, let's say, problematic. The first region to which the representative of Ukraine (and at the same time the OSCE) Leonid Kozhara (head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry) went was the territorial pair Moldova-Transdniestria. It would seem that it was quite an ordinary visit, which is usually associated with the so-called "brides" of the new chairman, the change of which for history both Tiraspol and Chisinau have already become accustomed to their existence as “problem” territories. However, this time the visit of a representative of a country that received the right to chair the OSCE for a year led to a real local diplomatic scandal, which became public knowledge.
Scandal nothing foreshadowed, but Leonid Kozhara, who is Ukraine’s Foreign Minister since December 2012, gave birth to him out of the blue, as they say, not even being in the position ... The essence of the scandal is that after negotiations with political representatives top of Moldova and Transnistria, Leonid Aleksandrovich said that he allegedly managed to reach literally breakthrough agreements with the leader of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublika Yevgeny Shevchuk. The “breakthrough” essence, according to the Ukrainian politician, was that President Shevchuk, again, allegedly, spoke in favor of a political discussion of the status of Transnistria ... within the Republic of Moldova. The words about the fact that “within the Republic of Moldova” Leonid Kozhara made a short “mkhatovskaya” pause, and therefore they sounded especially stressed.
Immediately after the words expressed about Yevgeny Shevchuk’s unexpected wish to start a political dialogue with Chisinau, the Ukrainian foreign minister soon enough left, leaving all the assembled journalists with half-open mouths of surprise. After all, if you believe Kozhara’s words, he became, in fact, the first politician in the modern history of Ukraine (and the OSCE as a whole), who was able to reach an agreement on the “final solution of the Transnistrian issue” during the on-duty visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol. Having laid such laurels on his head, Leonid Alexandrovich had no idea what his statement could lead to.
And it led to the fact that there appeared publications in the Moldavian press that now Tiraspol will definitely give up its aspirations to gain independence from Chisinau. Like, Shevchuk himself Kozhara and declared ...
These publications, for obvious reasons, excited the public, and so excited that if it were not for the statement of Shevchuk himself, who was not exposed in the best possible way for residents of Transnistria after Kozhara's “revelations”, then it would have gone very far.
Shevchuk, who found out what the OSCE politician said before leaving Chisinau at a small press conference, was forced to refute everything that Kozhara presented to the public. In particular, Yevgeny Shevchuk said that in fact there had been no discussion of a political settlement of the issues on the status of the Transdnistrian Moldavian Republic with Leonid Kozhara. It was exclusively about the economic aspects, on which Tiraspol itself emphasized.
Moreover, the economic framework of cooperation between Tiraspol and Chisinau was touched upon by Leonid Kozhara during a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova, Yuri Leanca. True, in the framework of this meeting, Mr. Leanca decided, by the way, to raise a much hotter topic, namely, the topic, as he put it, of the transformation of the peacekeeping contingent on the territory of Transdnistrian Moldavian Republic and Moldova. Obviously, by the word “transformation”, the Moldovan authorities understand the activity of ousting Russian peacekeepers from these territories and replacing them either solely with their police officers and military personnel, or, for example, with the EU military contingent, parts of which “surprisingly successful” pacify the situation in Kosovo , turning it (the situation) in the Balkans into a series of endless armed clashes, and covering the attacks of the Albanians in the Serbian enclaves of the region.
It should be noted here that the Minister Leanca himself had just before going to resign from his post, citing the fact that he had failed to fulfill the promises to abolish the visa regime between Moldova and the EU. Apparently, a kind of appeal to the OSCE representative to solve the problem, at least with the peacekeeping contingent “here and now,” became a trump card for Leanca, which he pulled out of the sleeve. And, apparently, after Kozhara said that Yevgeny Shevchuk unexpectedly decided on a political dialogue with Chisinau, they became a balm for the soul for Leanca, as if confirming the significance of himself (Leanca) both for Moldova and for the negotiation process with Tiraspol.
However, after it turned out that Kozhara sowed real disinformation, the importance of Leanca on the above parameters sharply went to a fall ... As, in fact, the importance of Leonid Kozhara himself, who really took too much upon himself in the framework of summing up his visit to the TMR and Moldova .
Where did he even get that Yevgeny Shevchuk is ready to solve the political issue of the TMR within Moldova - it seems that Chisinau and Tiraspol are guessing; and then Kozhara himself ...
Apparently, after this strange diplomatic incident, politicians and Moldova and Transnistria will now be asked in advance from the representatives of the OSCE, who visited their territorial entities, what are they going to tell the masses during their press conferences at the end of the visit. As if something happened again ...