UKRAINE/MOLDOVA/TRANSNISTRIA: GOU BLAMES TIRASPOL

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIEV 001020

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2016
TAGS: PREL PBTS PINR OSCE
SUBJECT: UKRAINE/MOLDOVA/TRANSNISTRIA: GOU BLAMES TIRASPOL
FOR TRANSNISTRIA BORDER STAND-OFF


Classified By: Political Counselor Aubrey A. Carlson for reasons 1.4(b,
d)


1. (C) Summary: In a March 15 briefing of OSCE member state
reps, GOU officials accused Transnistrian authorities of
purposefully engineering the ongoing border standoff and
refusing GOU attempts to discuss the situation. GOU
officials appealed to EU states to advise their shippers to
avoid transiting Transnistria and to require Moldovan customs
documentation on Transnistrian shipments. The GOU is also
making its case in the media. End summary.


2. (U) DFM Andriy Veselovsky and Ukrainian Special Envoy for
Transnistria Dmytro Tkach provided the latest developments to
diplomats from OSCE member states March 15 on the dispute
with Moldova's Transnistria region over Ukraine's enforcement
of its customs protocol with Moldova. A deputy minister of
the Transportation Ministry and deputy heads of the State
Border Guards Service (SBGS) and State Customs Service
provided additional information in the nearly two-hour
briefing.


3. (SBU) Tkach said he had returned to his current
Ambassadorial posting in Budapest March 12 after a four-day
vacation and rushed to Odesa the following day to join the
Ukrainian government working group monitoring the border
situation. He and SGBS Deputy Head Pavel Shisholin provided
details substantiating that the Transnistrian authorities
were engineering an atmosphere of crisis, including by busing
in demonstrators to perform before television news cameras.
Drivers of transport trucks backed up at the border were
unable to leave because Transnistrian border guards had
confiscated their documents and vehicle registrations. First
the SBGS and now the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency
Situations had provided tents for the stranded drivers and
were feeding them.


4. (C) Tkach said the Ukrainian government had proposed to
meet with Transnistrian representatives in Odesa March 16,
but the Transnistrians had refused, first orally and to be
followed up with a written response. He had heard that
Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov had gathered business
leaders together and threatened retaliation if their
companies shipped exports to or received goods from Ukraine.
In telephone conversations, his contacts in the Transnistrian
business community had told Tkach that they were afraid to
stand up to Smirnov.


5. (C) Saying that 50 of the 77 vehicles stranded at the
border were from EU countries, Tkach appealed to EU member
state diplomats to advise their companies to choose routes
that do not transit Transnistria. He urged the EU companies
not to send trucks to the closed crossing points so as not to
aggravate the situation or overwhelm the emergency facilities
that had been established. Tkach also asked EU governments
to require companies not to accept Transnistrian shipments
that lacked Moldovan certificates and carried only
Transnistrian documents.


6. (C) Note: In a March 13 meeting with EUR DAS Kramer
(septel),2nd Territorial Department Director Ponomarenko
expressed his concern that the Ukrainian government was
losing the "information war" over the customs protocol. We
passed a set-up for a press briefing on Transnistria as we
exited MFA that evidently would take place immediately after
the diplomatic session. MFA has clearly mobilized to more
aggressively present its case, by going directly to the media
and by seeking assistance from fellow OSCE member states.
Subsequent media coverage of the press conference reported
Tkach's call for Russian influence on Transnistria to reopen
the border. He also said GOU officials would meet March 14
with Transnistrian businesses but, according to unofficial
indications, Transnistrian authority representatives would
talk "only to Moscow."


7. (U) Visit Embassy Kiev's classified website:
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev.
Gwaltney