US embassy cable - 05LJUBLJANA628

C O N F I D E N T I A L LJUBLJANA 000628 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/30/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, MD, SI 
SUBJECT: RUPEL ON TRANSNISTRIAN ELECTIONS, SOUTH OSSETIA 
 
Classified By: CDA Maryruth Coleman for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1.  (C)  After meeting with Minsk Group Co-Chairs on Karabakh 
(septel), Slovenian FM and OSCE CIO Dmitrij Rupel pulled 
aside Ambassador Steven Mann for a private talk on 
Transnistria.  He said that he had spoken with Ukrainian FM 
Tarasyuk a few days previously and Tarasyuk had talked up the 
Ukrainian plan for Transnistria, focusing on plans for 
elections in Transnistria.  Tarasyuk claimed that the plan 
was receiving EU and US backing and he solicited Rupel,s 
assistance in putting together observers for the planned 
December elections.  Rupel said he was very cautious about 
the elections.  He cautions were intensified by Ukraine,s 
request to send, as a high-level observer for the elections, 
the former head of the Slovenian Communist Party.  He told 
Tarasyuk that this person's background might not make him the 
best choice to reinforce a democratic election process. 
Tarasyuk then asked Slovenia to nominate an alternative 
candidate.  The CIO asked for US views on the situation. 
 
2. (C)  Mann said that we had welcomed the advent of Ukraine 
into conflict settlement.  The situation had been frozen 
because of Russian and Transnistrian intransigence and the 
Kuchma regime's corruption and inefficiency.  The Yushchenko 
administration had given us hope for a solution.  Each month, 
though, we had seen our hopes cut back.  Ukraine was 
concentrating on the feel-good parts of a Transnistria 
solution and was avoiding necessary, tough aspects such as 
Russian munitions and peacekeeper withdrawal and effective 
border controls.  Worse, it appeared that Tkach was pressing 
forward on elections in a way that would not give a free and 
fair basis but would legitimate the Tiraspol regime. 
 
3. (C)  For that reason, Mann said, he had dispatched his 
deputy to Kiev to attend a meeting today convened by Tkach. 
The message the US would convey was the need to be realistic 
in looking to any Transnistria elections.  Fair elections 
take a long time to prepare.  They involve much more than 
counting ballots and it was not realistic to believe that 
they could occur in December. If Tkach persisted in moving 
forward with a flawed and incomplete plan, despite many 
months of detailed and candid consultations between 
Washington and Kiev, the US would warn him that we may 
publicly disassociate ourselves from the Ukrainian initiative. 
 
4. (C)  Rupel welcomed the US misgivings; they tracked with 
his own.  He conveyed his understanding from Tarasyuk that 
the elections might indeed be put off until the Spring to 
take account of criticisms that the preparatory time was too 
short.  He asked for the US view in that event; Mann replied 
that we would consider whether the groundwork could be done 
with a longer lead time but that given Tkach,s approach thus 
far, we would be skeptical. 
 
5. (C)  Rupel also passed on a report that Transnistrian 
strongman Smirnov had worn out his welcome with Moscow and 
that Russia was preparing for a new leader in Transnistria. 
He did not know the name but believed that it would be one of 
the current ministers in the Transnistria administration. 
 
6. (C) In advance of Rupel,s Sunday stop in Georgia, Mann 
advised the CIO that the US would be taking a fresh look a 
possibilities for progress in South Ossetia.  We would be 
encouraging Georgia to move ahead on the Zhvania-Kokoity 
commitments and we would be encouraging Russia to have their 
South Ossetia clients reach out a hand as well.  Rupel told 
of a recent meeting he had with Georgian Parliament Speaker 
Nino Burjanadze in which she upbraided him for not supporting 
President Saakashvili,s Strasbourg proposals. 
 
7. (U)  Amb. Mann has cleared this cable. 
 
COLEMAN 
 
 
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 2005LJUBLJ00628 - Classification: CONFIDENTIAL 


 
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