CHISINAU, December 3./TASS/. President of unrecognized Transnistria Vadim Krasnoselsky has dubbed as speculation statements from Moldovan politicians concerning the withdrawal of the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transnistria (OGRF) from the region.

"Such statements from Moldovan politicians is pure speculation," Krasnoselsky told TASS in comments on appeals from Moldovan President-elect Maia Sandu to withdraw the troops and reformat the peacekeeping operation with the participation of Russia.

"We assume that the OGRF and the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation are the single and inseparable mechanism of legal Russian military presence in Transnistria, which is the basis of stability and security along the Dniester," he went on to say.

"Russian military in no way violate the territorial integrity of the neighboring state, since they are deployed to the constitutional territory of the Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic on legal grounds in line with the expression of the will of its citizens at the 1995 referendum," he said.

"Since state-legal relations remain unsettled, Transnistria and Moldova have no all-inclusive agreement that would rule out the possibility of a new direct military confrontation," he went on to say. "Moldova has individually withdrawn even from the agreements in effect on cooperation between the law enforcement agencies of the sides," Krasnoselsky stressed.

"As of today, the 1992 Agreement on the Principles for a Peaceful Settlement of the Armed Conflict is in effect between Transnistria and Moldova, under which the ceasefire is in place in the Security Zone," he said. "Any attempts to destroy the existing mechanism of guarantees can return the Moldova-Transnistria conflict back to the de-facto situation of the early 1990s," he warned.

At a news conference on Monday, Maia Sandu called for the withdrawal of Russian troops and ammunition from Transnistria and the deployment of an OSCE civilian monitoring mission in place of the Russian peacekeepers. Changes in the status quo in Transnistria may lead to a rise in tensions, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned on Monday.

"Russia is playing an important role and any changes in the status quo, which is based on the letter and spirit of international law, may lead to a serious rise in tensions," the Kremlin spokesman pointed out. "We do expect that all this will be discussed and no sudden movements will be made," he added.

Moldova’s Transnistrian quagmire

The Transnistrian conflict erupted in March 1992, when initial clashes occurred between Moldovan police and Transnistrian militia near the city of Dubossary. They were followed by an outbreak of armed hostilities. By the summer, it had morphed into a large-scale conflict in Bendery, where about 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands were wounded and ended up as refugees.

The civil war was brought to an end following a peace agreement signed in Moscow in July 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict zone. Negotiations on peacefully settling the conflict known as the 5+2 format talks had started after that.