Dodon Wants to Speed Up the Disposal of Ammunition in Cobasna: “A Year and a Half is too Much for Paperwork”

Moldovan President Igor Dodon intends to speed up the disposal of ammunition stored in Cobasna in order to “begin specific actions” in the middle 2020, said Dodon in an interview with Kommersant , published on September 23. As Dodon noted, he discussed the issue of ammunition disposal with the Russian leadership. “There is a desire on the part of Russia. This is a very good signal,” said Dodon. He also noted that the United States and the OSCE expressed interest in this process. “I talked with the current chairman of the OSCE, and they also expressed readiness, adding that they even have a budget of $7 million to start this process,” Dodon said. However, as the president noted, he wants to speed up this process. “I hope that Russia will be active in this process, because I think a year and a half for paperwork as previously said Lavrov seems too much,” said Dodon. He promised during his next meetings with the Russian leadership “to try to give an impetus so that specific actions to start in the middle of next year.” Answering the Kommersant question about the next step after the disposal of ammunition which is the withdrawal of the operational group of Russian troops, which is engaged in the protection of the depots with ammunition, Dodon noted that this problem should be divided into two parts. “There are Russian peacekeepers doing their job, doing everything right and doing well. Thanks to them, there has been no destabilization for all these years, so this needs to be continued as long as necessary, according to the decision of the parties. When there is no more ammunition stored in Cobasna, Russia will take an appropriate next step,”said Dodon. Earlier the issues of ammunition disposal in Transnistria were discussed during a meeting between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and President Igor Dodon. Then, Shoigu promised that Russia would provide Moldova with the equipment necessary for the disposal of ammunition located in Cobasna in the Transnistrian region of Moldova. After the meeting with Shoigu in Tiraspol the head of Transnistria Vadim Krasnoselsky said that he supported the idea of disposing of ammunition, but at the same time emphasized that disposal issues should be resolved exclusively during negotiations between Transnistria and Russia. Newsmaker