TIRASPOL, Moldova, April 28 (RIA Novosti, Vladimir Sandutsa) - A first tranche of financial aid from Russia worth 280 million rubles ($10.23 million) has arrived in Moldova's breakaway Transdnestr region, officials said Friday.
In addition to the donation from Krasnodar Territory's fund for Russians abroad, officials said, another 20 million rubles ($731,000) has been given by the Moscow, Bryansk and Irkutsk regions.
Earlier, Transdnestr economics minister Yelena Chernenko said the breakaway region would not survive without Russia's assistance after Ukraine had imposed new customs duties in early March. She said social services were being maintained, despite a $16 million debt.
Chernenko said Transdnestr had suffered losses of $112 million since new Ukrainian customs regulations introduced by Moldova in early March put it under what it says is an effective blockade.
The new regulations, which have stoked tension around the region, require all Transdnestr goods bound for neighboring Ukraine to have an official Moldovan stamp, not one from the breakaway region. The regulations were agreed by Moldova and Ukraine last year.
Armed conflict broke out in March 1992 when Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union and Transdnestr, where a majority Russian-speaking population feared Moldova could merge with Romania, in turn proclaimed independence. Bloodshed ended later in 1992 under a peace deal that saw Russian peacekeepers dispatched to the region, but no political solution has been found since.
Ukraine's foreign minister said last week that Kiev saw no reason to change customs regulations on goods bound for Ukraine from Transdnestr.
"It is our joint decision [with Moldova], and we are not going to reconsider it," Borys Tarasyuk said.
