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Moldova’s breakaway region has every right to seek recognition of independence — experts

"Moldova does not have the relevant historical, political or legal grounds for laying claims to the territory of the Dniester Republic," a panel of experts said

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. Moldova’s independence-minded Transdniestria region that proclaimed itself independent from Moldova back at the very beginning of the 1990’s did so in full compliance with the fundamental documents of international law, including the UN Charter, a group of Russian experts who drew up a legal assessment of the case said on Tuesday.

They presented their conclusions at a roundtable conference titled ‘The Political and Legal Grounds for International Recognition of Independence of the Dniester Republic [the region’s self-name used by people living there - TASS]’.

The roundtable brought together highly qualified lawyers, political analysts and representatives of state power agencies in Russia and the unrecognized Dniester Republic.

"The Republic of Moldova does not have the relevant historical, political or legal grounds for laying claims to the territory of the Dniester Republic," the paper says. "The Dniester region has attained full self-control and has attributes of statehood recognized by international law, as well as state sovereignty and independence government."

"It is self-reliant and independent in external relations and has the capability to cut short the attempts to interfere in its domestic affairs," the document says.

"International recognition of the Dniester Republic might help end the deadlock in relations between Moldova and the republic and avoid the excesses that stagnation in the Five plus Two mechanism of negotiations [Moldova and the Dniester as parties to the conflict Russia and Ukraine as mediators and guarantors, the OSCE, the U.S. and the EU as observers - TASS] might bring about," the experts say.

The drafting of the document took six months, the head of the group, Dr. Gennady Cheremnykh told TASS.

"The main conclusion is that the current status of the Dniester Republic makes it possible to consider its recognition as a subject of international relations," he said. "In the situation of a crisis of approaches to and mechanisms of settling the crisis around the Dniester conflict and the growth of instability around the region, the launch of a full-scale process of legal recognition of its sovereignty is highly topical."

"Given the presence of a broad legal basis, these efforts could be initiated on the existing international platforms, including the UN," Dr. Cheremhykh said.