​DMITRY ROGOZIN TO MEET WITH HIS MOLDOVAN COLLEAGUE ADRIAN CANDU NEXT THURSDAY

The Russian President’s Special Representative on Transnistria, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin will meet his Moldovan colleague, First Deputy Premier and Minister of Economy Adrian Candu in Chisinau on August 21, reported the Moldovan Ministry of Economy.

According to it, the meeting will be organized on Moscow’s initiative within the framework of the Moldova-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation.

The Moldovan Ministry of Economy accepted the Russian Embassy’s proposal to organize such meeting of the two deputy premiers because “this is our duty to use any opportunity for dialog with the Russian side and for creation of an atmosphere of transparency and constructivism in relations between the two states”.

At the meeting, the parties will attach primary attention to bilateral trade in the conditions of the Russian embargo on Moldovan food product supplying to Moldova and of the decision by the Russian Government to introduce customs duties on the importation of food products from Moldova starting from this upcoming September 1.

Also, Adrian Candu is going to raise the question of Russian natural gas supply to Moldova in the context of the completion of the current 5-year contract that will expire on December 31.

Some Moldovan experts believe that the meeting with Candu will be merely a by-event, and that the real aim of Rogozin’s coming, which he had repeatedly announced last several months, will be to visit Tiraspol, where he will attend the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the strategic Iasi-Chisinau operation and the liberalization of Moldova from the Nazi occupation.

The Tiraspol authorities are organizing these festivities next Friday, August 22. For this, Rogozin will bring with him a big group of Russian artists.

An analogous story happened last May 9. Then, after his sayings in support of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic, Rogozin came to have problems with flying back home from the Chisinau International Airport. Romania and Ukraine denied permission to his governmental airplane to fly via their airspaces, so Rogozin had to fly on board a regular, passenger air vessel.

In his words, he has apprehensions that this time, too, he may be denied access to Chisinau, but promised he would “invent something”. Perhaps, he has invented such meeting with Candu exactly for this.