Yesterday, Deputy Chairperson of the Government of the PMR for International Cooperation, Foreign Minister Nina Shtanski gave a comment to the Russian newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” on the consequences of the economic blockade and the current situation in Pridnestrovie. Below is the full text of the comment.
“We note with regret that today Pridnestrovie is in a hard economic situation.
Let me remind you that since 2006 the republic is under economic blockade organized by Moldova with the support of Ukraine. A discriminatory regime of the foreign economic activity for the Pridnestrovian enterprises continues to this day: Pridnestrovian producers have to pay taxes and a number of other charges to the budget of the Republic of Moldova to be able to export products abroad. Blockade measures increase every year, new mechanisms of pressure on the enterprises of the republic appear, the refusal to issue documentation for the movement of goods to the Pridnestrovian enterprises, which directly affects the overall economic situation in the state.
The 2014th year became particularly difficult. Along with the increasing of the economic blockade the situation in Ukraine caused a huge impact on the economy of the republic which was traditionally a large market of raw materials and finished products for Pridnestrovie. The trade turnover with Ukraine decreased sharply, a number of enterprises for which Ukraine was the only market, were forced to reduce or stop production. Transit of goods through the territory of Ukraine in the CIS countries was greatly complicated, problems arose at the Ukrainian-Pridnestrovian border through which Russian citizens living in Pridnestrovie were no longer allowed to pass, they began to detain goods. By the way, just the other day former Ambassador of Ukraine to Moldova Sergei Pirozhkov openly admitted that the border crossing regime for Pridnestrovians who have Russian citizenship (incidentally, there are nearly 200 thousand of them in the republic) was tightened intentionally as another measure of pressure on the republic.
In general, being under conditions when 80% of the economy of Pridnestrovie depends on export, this resulted in a significant shortfall in the state budget.
Due to the sharp deterioration of the economic situation, the Government of Pridnestrovie was forced to resort to unpopular measures to conserve resources for the timely fulfillment of social obligations: payment of salaries, pensions and benefits. The reality is that today we face the need to reduce government spending. Today at the meeting of the Government our Finance Minister said that under the circumstances for the three weeks of 2015 we got almost ten times less than the customs duties as compared to the same period last year. It is difficult to imagine what painful consequences this trend will produce.
In such a difficult situation we will continue to seek help from the Russian Federation, primarily in expanding our trade and economic relations, making new contracts with Russian partners, as this will allow to keep the level of industrial production and filling the republic's budget. In addition, we continue to work on attracting Russian investment into the economy of Pridnestrovie, developing trade relations with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.
Last year we signed with Russia 15 interagency agreements in various areas of cooperation. This year we will continue to work on filling the existing arrangements with practical content, primarily in trade issues and overcoming the consequences of the economic blockade of Pridnestrovie.”
