In the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic attention was drawn to the information regarding development and adoption in the first reading of legislative acts by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova which set new rules for crossing of the State Border of this country by foreign citizens. The Pridnestrovien side respects decisions of the adjoining state on reforming of regime and procedure of the State Border guard and on efficiency improvement of combating cross-border crime, the more so as the current measures of authorities of the Republic of Moldova are apparently insufficient – the fact which the data of law-enforcement structures of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic are indicative of, since their officers regularly prevent drug trafficking and other forms of illegal activities “exported” from Moldova. On our part, we are ready to initiate discussions of all aspects of cooperation on the management of the state border between the Republic of Moldova and the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic on a treaty-legal basis.
At the same time, we have to pay attention to the following. Adoption of the given proposals in the version distributed on official web resources of the RM will mean factual and legal withdrawal of the Republic of Moldova from agreements on a visa-free border crossing, concluded at both multi-bilateral level, in the framework of these or that interstate unions (the CIS and others), and at bilateral level.
With such actions Moldovan authorities once again challenge those countries relations with which are verbally of priority for Kishinev, first of all, Russia and Ukraine. It seems that in Moldova they forgot very quickly about concessions of the Ukrainian side in relation to entry regulations for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova when Kiev refused from bringing into force the requirements of a necessary sum when crossing State Border.
Such actions on the part of the Moldovan authorities allow the guarantor countries of the Moldova-Pridnestrovie settlement make sure of the fact that in Kishinev there is no understanding of the principles of good neighborhood and mutual understanding, and any concessions are seen as manifestation of weakness. It is expected that Moscow and Kiev, in particular, executive and legislative structures, as well as politicians responsible for bilateral cooperation and interaction within the CIS will be consistent in symmetric response to fairly unfriendly steps of the Moldovan authorities.
Tiraspol is not surprised at such steps of official Kishinev. In the course of a long period of time leadership of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic more than once made steps aimed at liberalization of the State Border crossing regime while maintaining effective forms of combating cross-border crime. Thus, transit duty, registration fees, etc. were abolished; however, no reciprocal steps on the part of the Moldovan side have been made. Moreover, administrative prosecution by the Republic of Moldova of the citizens of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic holding also citizenship of Russia or Ukraine even intensified.
In this connection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic considers it necessary to officially declare that in case of continuing practice of Pridnestrovien citizens' rights violation on the part of the Moldovan authorities and attempts to apply new restrictive measures in relation to the Pridnestrovien population, the leadership of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic will be forced to consider application of analogous measures in relation to the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Responsibility for the possible escalation of tension in bilateral relations will bear those forces in Kishinev that are not interested in the stability on the Dniester.
As for the influence of the given steps of the leadership of Moldova on the perspectives of relations normalization between the Republic of Moldova and the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic, in Kishinev one cannot but be aware of the fact that new discrimination measures in relation to the citizens of Pridnestrovie are unlikely to bring nearer the resumption of the official work of one of the formats of the Moldova-Pridnestrovie settlement what Moldova is verbally so interested in. Real actions of the Moldovan authorities give ground to assume that virtually Kishinev is still not interested in equal dialogue with Tiraspol.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic also declares that these or that unilateral decisions of government authorities of the Republic of Moldova don't influence procedure and terms of entry and stay of foreign citizens on the territory of Pridnestrovie. Current rules will be in effect up to adoption of new decisions by organs of state power of the Pridnestrovien Moldavian Republic.
