TIRASPOL, January 16 A resident of Transnistria was not allowed through the Chisinau airport home, separated from his family, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic, Vitaly Ignatiev, told reporters.
«»They don't name the reasons. We are talking first of all about our citizen Alexandru Navarice, who on December 19 was returning home with his family to the Chisinau airport and was stopped. Fortunately, the family was allowed home, but our citizen was not allowed in. Formally they said, that he could not explain the purpose of coming to Moldova. This is beyond common sense, cynicism of the highest level,» Ignatiev said after a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova Oleg Serebrian in Tiraspol.
According to Ignatiev, the Transnistrian side officially notified Chisinau that it is ready to send its transport to bring home its citizen, against whom there is no criminal prosecution. “They simply don’t let a person go home. This does not correspond to international and European norms and approaches. There are other (similar — ed.) examples, but so far this is the most acute problem,” noted the head of the Pridnestrovian Foreign Ministry.
Transnistria, 60% of whose residents are Russians and Ukrainians, sought secession from Moldova even before the collapse of the USSR, fearing that on the wave of nationalism Moldova would join Romania. In 1992, after a failed attempt by the Moldovan authorities to solve the problem by force, Transnistria became a territory virtually beyond the control of Chisinau.