RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR COMPLIMENTS TRANSNISTRIAN LEADER FOR FIRST YEAR OF PRESIDENCY

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Moldova Farit Muhametshin met with unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan republic (PMR) leader Vadim Krasnoselsky in Tiraspol on Wednesday, saying that the first year of Krasnoselsky’s presidency was fruitful, marked with serious changes – both economic and in foreign policy.

According to the PMR leader website, the Russian diplomat cited the considerable growth of industry and agriculture, as well as in foreign trade. He regarded as important the fact that preserving economic contacts with EU countries, Transnistria is actively raising trade connections with Russia; over a year, exports into Russian direction grew 44%.

Muhametshin also pointed at the raised interest to Transnistria from the side of European countries, regarding this as a merit of the Transnistrian leadership, whose initiatives broke the current stalemate in the negotiation process.

On his turn, the Transnistrian leader highly assessed the role of Russia as a guarantor, mediator and peacekeeper. With all this, he regarded as lies the talks that Russia provides just material assistance to Transnistria.

“I would first of all emphasize the political and diplomatic support. At the second place is the military and strategic support (peacekeepers and the Operative Group of Russian Troops, who are guarantors of peace in the Transnistrian land). The cultural and humanitarian assistance is also important, in particular in the field of education. Only after the above-mentioned types of support we can talk about the financial assistance, which is not just a financial flow, but comes in the form of crediting to Transnistrian enterprise”, he said.

The sides established the main directions of further interaction, plans and goals for the nearest perspective. Among the most relevant issues is the receiving of Russian citizenship by Transnistrian people, though currently each second resident of the region has it already.