Moscow - Two weeks ahead of critical polls in Moldova, Moscow invited the country's outgoing president and his separatist rival for what seemed less a chat in the principle's office than a candy-for-promises routine.
It was no mean feat uniting the two, who have met just once in almost eight years, to discuss their decades-long dispute.
Russia pulled all its weight to orchestrate the meeting intent on restore its image abroad as an honest broker in the post-Soviet space after its military push into Georgia in August, analysts said.