BAKU, May 31 (RIA Novosti) -- Russian peacekeepers will remain in Moldova's breakaway Transdnestr region until a political solution to the conflict is found, the country's defense minister said Wednesday.
NATO and Moldova have been urging Russia to withdraw its troops from the self-proclaimed republic under the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, which stipulates Russia's military withdrawal from former Soviet republics. Russia said it has implemented all clauses relating to the treaty, which Russian officials said sets no deadline for the pullout.
"A total of 1,500 Russian peacekeepers are staying in Transdnestr to prevent a war, and several hundred of them are guarding storehouses with ammunition and property," Sergei Ivanov said. "We have pulled out all of our hardware, but we cannot withdraw storehouses."
Russian peacekeepers have been stationed in Transdnestr since Russia intervened in the conflict in July 1992 at the request of the then Moldovan leader, and brokered a ceasefire agreement.
Russia cannot allow the ammunition to pass into anybody else's hands, said Ivanov, who is also deputy prime minister.
"We are a responsible state and will guard the storehouses until a political solution is found [to the conflict] between Moldova and Transdnestr," said Ivanov, who is attending a session of CIS defense ministers in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
The CFE treaty classifies and sets the ceiling for weapons that can exist in the European theater.
