Transnistria Has an Idea

You have to hand it to Transnistria, they’ve got guts. Everyone's favorite country that really isn’t a country but plays one at the OSCE negotiations, just handed Moldova a “Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic and the Republic of Moldova.”

That’s right, a bona fide treaty, complete with all the regalia of sovereignty, but without any messy bits like, well, actual sovereignty.

For their part, the Moldovans aren’t buying it. According Moldovan Deputy Minister of Reintegration Ion Stavila the offer “is not taken seriously by anybody” in Chisinau. Meanwhile, the 5+2 negotiation format, not to be confused with the 5+2+1 talks, or the much-hyped 64+937 = 1001 roundtable, continues without results.

"The [5+2] format can be improved,” Stavila said. “For example, the status of the European Union and the United States could be upgraded from ‘observers’ to ‘mediators.'”

Clearly.