Chisinau, October 9 (Infotag). The Patria-Moldova party claims it is negotiating with officials in Moscow the possibility of legalization of Moldovan gastarbeiters working in the Russian Federation, party’s Deputy Chairman George Sima stated at a news conference in Infotag today.

Sima said the party leader, Andrei Tarna, resides in Moscow permanently, and is negotiating the legalization problem with Russian State Duma deputies in the hope to achieve an acceptable solution to the problem.

In his words, Andrei Tarna was going to come to Chisinau for the news conference, but changed his mind at the last moment, for he believes that there exists a real danger to be arrested here, and that the Communist authorities may invent a formal reason for catching him, like they did with Valeriu Pasat two years ago.

Patria-Moldova expressed concern that Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin had refused to sign documents on migration at the last Friday’s CIS Summit held in Dushanbe (Tajikistan). Sima stated, President Voronin has thus demonstrated once again his indifference to 700 thousand Moldovans working in CIS countries, mostly in Russia, and remitting nearly a billion US dollars a year to Moldova.

The party has stated it is going to embark on the problem solution in earnest. For this, it will open its offices in Russia, Spain, Italy and Portugal, where an overwhelming majority of Moldovan gastarbeiters stay.

Mr. Sima, who is a former Moldovan Minister of Education and an ex-member of the Cabinet, presumes the Transnistrians do not believe in President Voronin’s sincerity, for they see that Moldova ignores the documents signed earlier between Chisinau and Tiraspol. Sima thinks the Transnistrian leaders will agree to come back to the negotiating table only upon the Communists’ departure from the power echelons in Chisinau.

The Patria-Moldova party was established precisely one month ago, on September 9, through a merger of the Patria-Rodina Labor Union and the Patria-Moldova organization of Moldovan gastarbeiters in Russia. The Moldovan Ministry of Justice has not yet registered the new organization or the results of the election of its new leadership.