TIRASPOL, March 26 The Moldovan authorities do not have the right to assert their claims to Transnistria, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic (PMR) Alexander Stetsyuk said on Tuesday.
«Sooner or later, the conditions for a broad dialogue will develop and we will still have to return to the negotiating table in order to agree on the parameters of our further coexistence with neighboring Moldova. But after everything that the Moldovan authorities are doing now, they do not have the slightest moral right claim something or declare their claims to Transnistria,” Stetsyuk said during the international conference “Transnistria in the realities of geopolitical confrontation: blockade — 2024.”
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The Deputy Head of the PMR Foreign Ministry noted that today there is severe social and economic pressure on the unrecognized republic from Moldova. He recalled that a year ago the Parliament of Moldova adopted amendments to the criminal code, providing for punishment for “separatism” and all citizens of Transnistria in Chisinau were by default registered as criminals.
“In fact, over the past few years, before our eyes, there has been a total dehumanization of the approaches and position of Chisinau, which has become characterized not only by traditional economic pressure, but also by depriving Pridnestrovians of the opportunity for quality medicine, diagnostics, treatment. There is a fear of returning home after a holiday abroad or being arrested while visiting Moldova,” Stetsiuk noted.
In February last year, the Parliament of Moldova adopted in the second reading amendments to the criminal code, providing for punishment for “separatism”, “conspiracy against Moldova” and other similar crimes. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the unrecognized PMR stated that by doing so Chisinau undermines the negotiation process on the Transnistrian settlement.
Transnistria, 60% of whose inhabitants are Russians and Ukrainians, sought secession from Moldova back in the last years of the USSR. The reason for this was fears that, in the wake of nationalist protests, Moldova would join Romania. In 1992, after an unsuccessful attempt by Chisinau to solve the problem by force, Transnistria became a territory virtually independent of it.