EXPERT: PROVISIONS OF NEW LAW ON SEPARATISM HAVE A SERIOUS DRAWBACK – THEY ARE INAPPLICABLE IN PRACTICE

Ukraine highly appreciated the amendments to the legislation approved in Moldova recently, which, in particular, provide for criminal punishment for separatism, said Sergey Sidorenko, Editor of the European Truth publication.

In his Friday’s article headlined “Moldova declares war on separatists: how they plan to persecute the elite of Transnistria and the Russian Federation,” he said that the amended Criminal Code of Moldova determines that “the very existence of the Transnistrian authorities is already illegal.”

“It’s hard to believe but, so far, this [the existence of the separatist Transnistrian republic as such] has not been clearly defined in the legislation of Moldova. But now, the so-called ‘authorities’, created outside the constitutional norms and not recognized by international treaties, will be determined as unconstitutional entities and will be subject to criminal liability”, the article said.

However, in the author’s opinion, many norms of the new law, revolutionary for Moldova, have a serious drawback - they are not always effective in practice. According to him, “Such a blockade is not included in the plans of Chisinau - moreover, the Government of the Republic of Moldova personally provides the main financial income for Transnistria!”

Sidorenko drew attention to the fact that, “It was the governmental team, led by Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu, who agreed on the purchase of electricity from the budget-forming enterprise of the separatists – the Moldavskaya power plant”.

“Moldova is not ready to stop these purchases, which means that the financing of separatism will continue even after the criminal punishment for it appears,” the author wrote.