The Economist: Moldova and Transdniestria: Another forgotten conflict

"Good behaviour in Moldova’s separatist dispute reaps meagre rewards“LET us live in poverty, but in a country at peace,” says Vasily Sova, Moldova’s negotiator with its breakaway territory of Transdniestria, when asked about the billions lavished on Georgia after its August war with Russia. Unlike the belligerent Georgia, Moldova has taken a gentle approach to its Russian-backed separatists, and it is not trying to join NATO. Yet it is barely nearer than Georgia to a deal over lost territory.Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, went to Moldova this week to push a new initiative. Russia does not recognise Transdniestria’s independence, but it wants to keep troops there, a condition all other parties reject. The Moldovan and Transdniestrian leaders have not met recently. Moldova’s president, Vladimir Voronin, was turned back when he tried to visit his home village in Transdniestria. Mr Voronin called Transdniestria’s leader, Igor Smirnov, “an evil force who has turned his region into a festering wound on the body of Moldova”. Yet the dispute has none of the deep hostilities of the Caucasus. Trade across the Dniester is flourishing. The Transdniestrian football team, Sheriff, tops the Moldovan league. Tiraspol is something of a museum of Soviet nostalgia, with its Lenin statue and Karl Marx street. But Sergei Cheban, head of the foreign-affairs committee in the Transdniestrian parliament, tries to be reasonable. Of Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, he says “we do not need that kind of recognition,” holding out the chance of a sovereignty deal with Moldova..." Restul aici: http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12609757