Last week the actions of settling the Transnistrian conflict took the direction supposed by political analysts: Russia proposed a project on federalization of the Republic of Moldova to President Voronin and Transnistrian Leader Igor Smirnov. Yuri Zubakov, Embassador of Russian Federation in Chisinau, handed over the Memorandum to the Head of the State on Monday, November 16. At the same time, Dmitri Kozak, Deputy Head of Presidential Administration in Kremlin, arrived. Kozak met with the Head of the State and with the leader of the secessionist formation in Tiraspol, and organized a press conference at the Embassy of Russian Federation in Chisinau. He promoted the same idea: the new Russian initiative with regard to the settlement of Transnistrian conflict completes the federalization project proposed by the mediators in Kiev and should be supported promptly. This was a kind of a flash-like attack in diplomacy.

The Memorandum, handed over to Chisinau through Russian Foreign Ministry, stipulates the basic principles of state structure of the future federation. It even proposes a name for the country - the Federal Republic of Moldova. According to the authors of the project, with the view of preserving territorial integrity, the Republic of Moldova will be reconstructed according to federal principles within its borders from January 1, 1990, will be a neutral, demilitarized state, will have a common customs, monetary, financial, as well as defense (for the transition period) area. Along with Transnistria, the Memorandum also confers the status of a Subject of the Federation to the Autonomous Territorial Unit Gagauz-Yeri. They will have their own legislative and executive bodies, their own Constitutions, state property, budget, taxation system, as well as their own state symbols. It will not be possible to modify the borders of the Subjects of the Federation without their approval. Also Russia proposes that the state language is decreed Moldovan, and Russian language is given the status of an official language within the future federation. The Subjects will have the right to come out of the structure of the state, if the federation joins another state or loses its sovereignty in the future. A Subject will be able to come out of the federation as a result of collecting the majority of votes at a referendum organized within it. Surely, this proposal, used by Moscow from 1991, when the war on Nistru was being planned, aims at foiling for the future the desire of Moldovans -the majority of the population of the Republic of Moldova - to unite with Romania.

According to the proposal, the legislative body of the future state will be the Federal Parliament consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate will consist of 26 Senators elected for the period of five years, nine of which will be from Transnistria, four from Gagauz-Yeri, and 13 will be elected by the House of Representatives. 71 elected Members of Parliament will form the House of Representatives for a period of four years. The Federal President, as Head of the State, will be elected by a general secret vote for a period of five years. He will then propose the make-up of the Federal Government to the Senate for confirmation. 11 judges, four of which will be from Transnistria and one from Gagauz-Yeri, will represent the judicial authority.

It is proposed to form the Senate not later than February 1, 2005, to elect Members of Patrliamentto the House of Representatives by April 30, 2005, and Federal President by May 31, 2005. The project of the future Constitution should be published by March 31, 2004.

The actions of the President of the Republic of Moldova after he was handed over the project, clearly show that he is being pressurized by Moscow to make it public at national and international level and to accept the proposals of Kremlin. Vladimir Voronin talked to Jaap de Hoop Schiffer, OSCE President, Foreign Minister of Holland, to OSCE Representative in Chisinau, to Vladimir Philipov, Secretary General of the Council of Europe in the Republic of Moldova, met with the two former Presidents of the Republic of Moldova, Mircea Snegur and Petru Lucinschi, with the leaders of parliamentary groups, as well as with the Heads of the authorized diplomatic missions in Chisinau. He tries to disseminate the idea that the Memorandum proposed by Moscow is a necessary document for the reunification of the country. His legislative initiative proposed to the Parliament may also be considered the same kind of action. It concerns the removal of criminal responsibility of those, who during the war in 1992 committed a crime against the defendants of the territorial integrity and independence of the Republic of Moldova.

The two former Presidents of the Republic of Moldova criticized the attitude of Voronin, Petru Lucinschi mentioned that the project was not an ultimatum and we did not have to hurry, and Mircea Snegur mentioned once again that he did not support the idea of federalization of the Republic of Moldova and that Transnistria should be given a high-level local self-administration or autonomy within a united state.

The leaders of the parties in opposition criticized the proposals of Moscow even more: "They aim at destroying the independence of the Republic of Moldova". Dumitru Braghis, Leader of the Alliance "Moldova Noastra" Parliamentary Group, said that the project proposed to legalize Smirnov's regime, which is not recognized and is criticized on the international scene. Oleg Serebrean, Leader of Social-Liberal Party, claims that Moscow proposes a devilish mechanism of governing thee four million of citizens of the Republic of Moldova. And Iurie Rosca, President of Popular Christian Democratic Party, says frankly: "Russia promotes a policy of expansion, which gets more and more aggressive. The document aims at making Russian military presence permanent in the Republic of Moldova and maintaining political control over our state". The representatives of civil society consider that if Russian plan is carried out, it will result in a dictatorship of a minority over the absolute majority of the population.

However, the Head of the State considers that the document "offers a realistic compromise scheme to avoid territorial, political and economic disruption of our country". These are the words also used by Dmitri Kozak, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration in Kremlin, considered to be the author of the Russian project of federalization of the Republic of Moldova. The latter requested the first to declare in favor of the project as soon as possible. Trying to understand the point of such a hurry, one realizes that Russia does not want to loose the opportunity to achieve its goals: 1. That Transnistrian conflict is settled in its political interests, 2. To create itself an image of a good conflict mediator on the international scene and 3. To gain superiority over certain international bodies as, in this case, OSCE. It is the right moment, because OSCE reunion is going to take place at the beginning of December in Maastricht, Holland. By settling Transnistrian conflict this organization wants to demonstrate the world its viability that has been doubted recently. Russia is aware of it and uses the situation to promote its interests. Thus, it is believed that Moscow will get the agreement of OSCE to the project of federalization of the Republic of Moldova, and also to the extension of the period of the presence of Russian troops on this territory.

The action undertaken by Russia in the case of the Republic of Moldova last week demonstrates that Moscow not only neglects OSCE, but also dictates certain actions to it. The "Kiev Project" - on federalization of the Republic of Moldova - was drawn by OSCE, Ukraine and Russia together. What was the need for an urgent and massive intervention of Moscow? In order to use the opportunity to promote the policy of holding the former Soviet Republics under its influence by means of another, that is through an international body like OSCE.