Feb 18, 2008, 15:13 GMT
Chisinau - Leaders of the renegade Moldovan province Transnistria were closeted in meetings on Monday over Kosovo's recent declaration of independence, the Infotag news agency reported.
Russian-speaking Transnistria seceded from Romanian-speaking Moldova after a civil war ending in 1992. No country has recognised the region as a separate state, despite Transnistria's de facto independence.
Top members of Transnistria's leadership, headed by Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov, began meetings early on Monday to decide the region's best move given Kosovo's new status.
Leaders of two other Soviet-era breakaway provinces, Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia, were in Moscow on Monday pushing their regions' independence, and politicking for international recognition.
The Kremlin has threatened to recognize both Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia, if Kosovo became an independent state.
The facts that Smirnov had not been invited to Moscow, and that a change in Transnistria's status had not been among recent Kremlin threats to NATO nations, have obliged the Transnistrian leadership 'to review their options carefully, to find the best way forward,' Infotag reported, citing a senior Transnistrian official.
One possible Transnistrian move would be a direct approach to the United Nations requesting the UN recognise Transnistria's independence, he said.
A second option, reportedly supported by hard liners within the Transnistria leadership, calls for the dispatch of Transnistrian ambassadors to countries that might recognise the region, particularly Russia, Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan.
Russia's upcoming March 2 election, in which Transnistrian citizens holding Russian passports may participate, and the need to keep polling in the region violence-free were key arguments of moderates within the Transnistrian politburo supporting no major Transnistrian diplomatic initiatives in the wake of Kosovo's independence.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has tried since 1994 to bring Moldova and Transnistria to meaningful reunification talks. The effort in no small part due to friction with Russia has been an abject failure, and Transnistria is at once one of the most heavily militarised, and poorest, regions in Europe.
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