Negotiators initialled a package of agreements Wednesday under which Moscow's 15,000-strong 14th Army will leave the small former Soviet republic over a three-year period. The pull-out will start as soon as the accord is formally signed.
"This army is organically linked with the region and should stay here as long as the people want it," said Igor Smirnov, president of the self-proclaimed Transdnestr republic where the Russian troops are stationed.
"The withdrawal of this army will destroy the balance of forces," he said in an interview in Tiraspol, capital of the region which broke away from Moldova in 1991.
Transdnestr is largely Russian-speaking and most of the officers and men of the 14th Army were recruited locally, complicating Moscow's task in negotiating a pull-out.
The army used its massive firepower to halt fighting between Transdnestr separatists and Moldovan troops in June 1992 in which several hundred people were killed.
It has since stayed in barracks while a separate tripartite peacekeeping force of 3,500 Russian, Moldovan and Transdnestr soldiers keeps the two sides apart.
Smirnov said the 14th Army's presence was "a restraining factor for the hotheads in Moldova."
While reluctant to criticize Moscow directly, he acknowledged that he was under pressure from Russia to come to terms with Moldova.
But he said his republic would agree only to a loose confederation that would allow it to keep its own money, flag, parliament, legal system and armed forces. Only foreign relations would be handed over to Kishinyov, he said.
Explaining why his delegation walked out of the final round of talks this week on the Russian withdrawal, he said: "We are not going to take part in this spectacle. Our proposals were ignored and not taken seriously by the other delegations."
Asked whether local people might try to prevent the departure of the Russian troops by blocking railway lines, he replied, "I don't rule that out."
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