The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR Vitaly Ignatiev gave an interview to the independent French journalist Loic Ramirez. During the conversation with the media representative, the Pridnestrovian Foreign Minister spoke about the current processes around Pridnestrovie and about the situation within the Moldovan-Pridnestrovian dialogue. He paid as well attention to the political and legal prerequisites for PMR’s formation.
The politically motivated criminal prosecution of Pridnestrovian citizens by the Republic of Moldova was of particular interest for the French journalist when discussing the negotiation process topic. In this context, the Minister stated that such an uncivilized practice has developed historically and recalled the First President of the PMR Igor Smirnov’s arrest back in 1991.
According to him, in modern circumstances, destructive processes do not weaken, whilst there’s not absolute certainty as to the number of criminal cases initiated for political reasons due to Chisinau's refusal to provide relevant data which is contrary to the existing agreements in the negotiation process. In particular, the Head of the PMR Foreign Ministry pointed out that the Moldovan side undertook in 2013, 2016, 2017, to exchange lists and initiate work on terminating criminal cases but has not done so until now.
Separately, Vitaly Ignatiev dwelled on the egregious case of the Pridnestrovian citizen, A. Samoniy, who was detained in the RM and got sentenced to 15 years of prison. He also drew attention to the renewed practice when detaining Pridnestrovian officials at the Chisinau airport over recent weeks and accompanying it with many hours of inspections, interrogations and threats.
“The problem of criminal cases destroys many people’s fate, negatively affects the atmosphere of a dialogue and the general state of the negotiation process. These actions from the part of Moldova only lead to tension escalation and no way help to resolve the conflict,” the diplomat emphasized. As the Minister noted, in addition to PMR citizens’ criminal prosecution, Moldova uses a whole range of other methods of hybrid war in relation to Pridnestrovie, including economic, transport and logistics obstacles as well as illegal goods detention.
During the interview, Vitaly Ignatiev also shared his opinion on the prospects for international recognition of PMR’s independence. “It is very important to be based on human rights when choosing a settlement method. People who live in Pridnestrovie have the right to determine their own future. I do personally believe that over all these 31 years, the de facto settlement process has already taken place. The Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic is an objective reality. It remains to bring the settlement to the de jure level by signing an agreement on peace, friendship and cooperation between Pridnestrovie and Moldova,” the diplomat concluded.
