TIRASPOL, February 2 The Moldavian authorities received a strict order to prevent voting of citizens of Transnistria in the presidential elections in Russia, says deputy of the Supreme Council of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (PMR), political scientist Andrei Safonov.
Earlier, the Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament and leader of the ruling Action and Solidarity (PAS) party, Igor Grosu, called on Moscow to refuse to open polling stations for the Russian presidential elections on the territory of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic.
“I am sure that the authorities in Chisinau have received a strict order to prevent Pridnestrovians from voting in the Russian presidential elections, so as not to show the pro-Russian orientation of the multinational people of the PMR to the outside world,” Safonov said.
The PMR deputy drew attention to the fact that the administration of President Maia Sandu is now preparing a referendum in Moldova. According to him, the vote should give a result according to which residents of all Moldova strive to join the European Union and supposedly do not want any integration processes with Russia.
“If Pridnestrovians who have Russian passports vote en masse in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation on the territory of the PMR itself, then this will largely ruin the idea of the Chisinau referendum and make it unnecessary. At least as far as Pridnestrovie is concerned,” Safonov noted .
He suggests that in the near future the Moldovan authorities should expect threats against both Moscow and Tiraspol, just to prevent the creation of Russian polling stations in Transnistria.
«Apparently, the plan is this: to chatter Moscow so that it does not deploy polling stations for the Russian presidential elections in Transnistria. If this does not work, then anti-Russian and anti-Transnistrian hysteria will rage again, and increased pressure will be put on the PMR,» — Safonov summed up.
Last Monday, the new head of the Moldavian Foreign Ministry, Mihai Popsoi, said on the national radio “Moldova-1” that the issue of opening polling stations for Russian citizens on the territory of Moldova is still being discussed. He also emphasized that Chisinau, under any circumstances, cannot prohibit the opening of a polling station on the territory of the Russian Embassy.
Earlier, Russia turned to Moldova with a request to open polling stations for voting in the Russian presidential elections, which are scheduled to take place on March 15-17. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI) said it was studying the issue and would respond to Moscow within a reasonable time frame. The previous presidential elections in Russia took place in March 2018. Then 27 polling stations were opened in Moldova, with only three of them in the territory controlled by the Moldovan authorities, and another 24 in the territory of Transnistria (more than 200 thousand Russian citizens live there).
The Federation Council of the Russian Federation has appointed presidential elections for March 17, 2024. Voting will last three days: March 15, 16 and 17. At the moment, 11 people are vying for the post of head of state. The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation has registered four presidential candidates — Leonid Slutsky, Nikolai Kharitonov, Vladislav Davankov and Vladimir Putin.
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 Moldavian authorities to solve the problem by force, Transnistria became virtually a territory beyond the control of Chisinau.