The Moldovan press is demonstrating fairly different reactions to the meeting the Presidents of Moldova and Russia, Vladimir Voronin and Vladimir Putin, held in Moscow yesterday.

The oppositional Timpul [Time] newspaper of Chisinau posed itself and its readers a question, "Did Voronin capitulate to Moscow?" The publication is not ruling out the Moldovan President did make an attempt to improve relations with Russia, which had deteriorated dramatically following Voronin's stunning decision to abstain, at the last moment, from signing the already initialed Kozak Memorandum on Transnistria in November 2003.

With reference to the Kommersant Daily of Moscow, Timpul wrote today that in exchange for improved relations with Russia, Moldova may agree to the following concessions: to make loud international compliments to Russia's peace-maintenance efforts in this region; to provide extra guarantees that the Republic of Moldova shall never join the NATO; to provide a higher official status for the Russian language in Moldova; to recognize Russian companies' title to property situated in the Transnistrian region.

The "Nezavissimaya Moldova" daily Russian-language newspaper quoted Presidential Adviser Mark Tkachuk as saying that "defrosting of the Moldo-Russian relations has already started", that the two Presidents had "a sincere and positive conversation having touched on absolutely all key topics - from the Transnistria problem to natural gas supply". The paper presumes the yesterday's meeting in the Kremlin "opened a new phase of consistent dialog between the two states".

The Flux weekly, belonging to the leader of the radical pro-Romania Christian Democratic Popular Party MP Iurie Rosca and known to be a very active and verbose commentator of such events, violated its tradition this time, having only reprinted a BBC story that contained a brief and general review of the Moldo-Russian relations.

A number of Russian publications shared an opinion that the Moldovan leader's visit to Moscow should help restore relationship between the two Presidents and solve the two countries' disputable political and economic questions.

The Kommersant newspaper wrote Putin met Voronin in a more-than-just-cool manner - "when they met, he [Putin] restricted himself to a ritual handshake and a protocol smile... But after a 2-hour-long tĂȘte-Ă -tĂȘte conversation, the President of Moldova advised at the late breakfast about new vineyards being planted in his country, and Putin was asking his colleague in detail about how this is done".

Kommersant wrote that the Co-Chairman of the Moldo-Russian inter-governmental commission for trade and economic cooperation, Russian Minister of Sciences and Education Andrei Fursenko said that "now, with Russia's participation, the Transnistrian negotiations will be resumed. Also, the sides will accelerate talks on energy and agricultural problems".

According to Kommersant, the stimulus for holding the meeting was Voronin's letter to Putin, which the Moldovan leader had, allegedly, handed in to his Russian colleague last month, during the horse race that was one of remarkable events on the agenda of the July 21-22 informal Moscow summit of CIS leaders.

"In that letter, Voronin proposed that Russia should remove its peacekeepers from Transnistria and should agree to providing Transnistria with autonomy status within Moldova. In exchange for that, Voronin promised Moldova would not only abstain from deploying NATO military bases in its territory, but even would never accede to the NATO. The letter contained a thought - that Moldova, if everything goes on smoothly, will begin treating the Russian property in Moldova (including in Transnistria) the way it treats its own property, i.e. Chisinau will be regarding it as untouchable", the paper wrote.

Komsomolskaya Pravda headlined its story "Moldovan President Came to Putin without Brandy, but Relations between the Countries Got De-Frosted". In the opinion of this popular publication, the conversation, which the two Presidents held behind closed doors, was about the quality of Moldovan wines.

Izvestia was less optimistic, saying the protocol part of the Voronin-Putin meeting was "record-breaking short, after which the two preferred to make no statements. Such refusals to summarize talk results in public usually mean the sides have failed to reach any substantial accords".

Rossiiskaya Gazeta pointed out how differently Moldova and Georgia behaved in response to the Russian ban on the imports of wines from these two FSU republics: "The official Tbilissi reacted very sharply, accusing Russia of resorting to economic sanctions, whereas Chisinau, on the contrary, sent to Moscow a governmental delegation who tried to settle the emerged difficulties... Presently, a real possibility exists to settle the wine situation", the Moscow newspaper wrote in conclusion.