During today’s meeting of political representatives of Pridnestrovie and the Republic of Moldova Nina Shtanski and Victor Osipov the sides discussed the problem of politically motivated criminal cases against Pridnestrovians, as well as the deportation of guests of the republic and citizens of Pridnestrovie from the Kishinev airport.
Commenting on the results of the discussion of incidents related to the interrogation and subsequent deportation from the Kishinev airport of official delegations of the Republic of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, staying in Pridnestrovie for celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the republic, Nina Shtanski noted that such actions of the Moldovan side do not only harm the image of the Republic of Moldova on the international stage, but also can lead to highly sensitive consequences. The Foreign Minister also noted that the guests from Abkhazia and South Ossetia were deported, despite the existence of preliminary agreements with the Moldovan side.
“The Caucasian delegations, certainly, would not have come if we had not previously received assurances from the Moldovan side that our guests would be let in the territory of Pridnestrovie and they would be provided a free departure from the country. The Republic of Moldova has changed its position at the moment when the guests were already in Pridnestrovie. Representatives of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, for sure, reacted to these incidents, inter alia there are official statements. It raises the question: how the demarche by the Moldovan authorities can strengthen the positive image of the Republic of Moldova, and who has thought of thousands of Moldovan guest workers who are on the territory of the Caucasian republics. I think that the Moldovan side should be concerned about all this,” - said Nina Shtanski in the course of communication with journalists after the meeting.
In this regard the sides also discussed the issue of the deportation of citizens of Pridnestrovie from Moldova, permanently residing in the country. “We are talking about the inhabitants of Pridnestrvie, the people who are now deprived of any opportunity to live with the family at home, some of them are on the territory of Russia without a permanent residence and livelihood. We have heard the next absurd explanations that these people are spies,”- said Nina Shtanski. The Minister noted the danger of such approaches of the Republic of Moldova based on erroneous assumptions since all the 200,000 Russian citizens residing in Pridnestrovie can fall into this criterion. “According to the Moldovan side, these cases are rare and do not appear to deserve the attention of the highest representatives of Moldova. We were told that these citizens can take advantage of the procedural mechanisms to protect their rights. At the same time Moldova has deprived them of such a possibility because the deportees cannot turn to the courts of Moldova, as well as members of their families will not be able to appeal the decision in court because they do not have the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova. In that context the Moldovan side committed itself to develop and make recommendations on how the rights of these people and their families could be protected procedurally,” - explained the head of the Pridnestrovian diplomacy.
Issues of politically motivated criminal cases in Moldova against representatives of Pridnestrovie were under discussion between the political representatives. Nina Shtanski stated that a member of the Pridnestrovian Interior Ministry staff Maksim Kuzmichev was still under arrest in Athens, at that the Moldovan side assures that it makes every effort to extradite him. “It seems that the efforts of the Republic of Moldova are insufficient, and therefore we called on the Moldovan side in order to avoid such situations in future to revoke the requests for international search for other facts of politically motivated criminal cases against Pridnestrovians,” - she said.
The minister also stressed that the Moldovan side continues to shrink from holding a working meeting of experts on the termination of criminal cases, and along with it the political representative of the Republic of Moldova could not even provide a current list of the citizens of Pridnestrovie - the defendants in politically motivated criminal cases. “To my surprise, we have learned that even Vice Prime Minister, Representative on political issues of the Republic of Moldova Victor Osipov cannot get this list. According to him, he has been refused in receiving such information. Thus, today, Victor Osipov cannot competently answer the question of how many representatives of Pridnestrovie came under the repressive measures, who actually is criminally prosecuted for political reasons on the part of the Republic of Moldova, and how exactly the Moldovan side intends to solve this problem when it is entrusted to a person who does not have access to information on this subject,” - said Nina Shtanski.
