XI European Forum “EU 2017 and the Russian Revolution of 1917: lessons learned” took place on the site of the European Parliament in Brussels on December 3-4, 2017. Pridnestrovie was represented at the forum by Deputy Chairperson of the Supreme Council of the PMR Galina Antyufeeva and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR Vitaly Ignatiev.
For reference: The European Russian Forum is an annual event organized in Brussels by the European Russian Alliance at the initiative of its Chairperson, member of the European Parliament Tatyana Zhdanok. The forum is intended to serve as a multilateral platform for non-governmental dialogue between Russia and the European Union.
A number of well-known Russian and European politicians, diplomats and experts, including the Permanent Representative of Russia to the EU, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Vladimir Chizhov, Foreign Minister of the RSO Dmitriy Medoev, Federation Council member Olga Timofeeva, deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Nikonov and Konstantin Zatulin, as well as a number of deputies of the European Parliament became participants in the Forum’s thematic discussions this year.
Within the framework of the event Vitaly Ignatiev delivered a speech in the discussion section “Self-determination of nations: from 1917 to 2017”. The diplomat dwelled on historical and legal foundations of independence of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic noting that directive unification of the Moldavian Autonomous SSR and Bessarabia in 1940 laid foundation for the breakdown that occurred during the collapse of the USSR, when the Moldovan parliament in fact abandoned Pridnestrovie with its decisions. According to the Minister, the differences between Pridnestrovie and Moldova that appeared during those years were worldviews and fundamental. “When Moldova was struck by a wave of aggressive nationalism and anti-Soviet hysteria in the years of the USSR collapse, Pridnestrovie, on the contrary, sought to preserve itself as part of the Soviet Union and proclaimed the equality of languages and nationalities,” the PMR Foreign Minister emphasized in his speech, saying that in those conditions the only form of preserving peace in Pridnestrovie was its own independence.
Recalling that in 1990 Moldova actually withdrew not only from the Soviet Union but also from the Moldavian SSR, Vitaly Ignatiev particularly noted that “the process of the collapse of the USSR has not been completed until Pridnestrovie has obtained a legal confirmation of its de facto independence on international level”.
“If the inalienable right of Pridnestrovians to self-determination were taken into account by the international community and the Republic of Moldova, I am convinced that the situation would have been deconflicted for a long time,” he said.
Galina Antyufeeva, Deputy Chairperson of the Supreme Council of the PMR, took part in the round table “Conflict of the West and Russia: 2017”, focusing on the impact of the geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West on the situation around Pridnestrovie, and also about the foreign policy guidelines of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
During the visit, the Pridnestrovian delegation will also hold a number of working meetings in Brussels.
