(27/03/06) KOSOVO IMPACT ON OTHER CONFLICTS. (Balkan Watch)

• 2006-03-31
• Europa in de wereld

Various analysts have suggested that the outcome of Kosovo final status talks may impact the status of other difficult conflicts in Eastern Europe.

The speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, Sergei Mironov, did not rule out in a discussion over the intractable South Ossetia conflict that the disputed region, which is geographically and technically a part of the Georgia, may become part of Russia, as desired by many ethnically Russian South Ossetians, who have refused to recognize the Georgian government since the 1990s.

In Moldova, a conflict between Soviet holdover rebels in the separatist enclave of Transnistria and the legitimate Moldovan government may also be affected by the resolution of the Kosovo conflict. The deputy foreign minister of unrecognized Transnistria acknowledged that the current method of negotiations between Transnistria and the Moldovan government will be changed regardless of whether Kosovo becomes independent or remains in its current status. The Transnistrian conflict, however, is complicated by the pro-EU and -NATO government in Ukraine, led by Viktor Yushchenko.