Prime Minister Iurie Leanca said that Moldova’s administration, including the Government, bear no blame for the deterioration in the Moldovan-Russian relations. He made the statement in an interview for TVC 21 channel, IPN reports.
According to the head of Government, it is the Kremlin that is angry as it does not want to accept that Moldova chose the path to integration into the EU. “I often analyze my work to see if I did something wrong and find nothing to reproach myself for the deterioration in the relations with Russia. We were always sincere and open to Russia. We not only once explained to the Russian authorities that the choice of the European course for us represents not a geopolitical project, but a development way. We simply tend towards European development as we also want to have a prosperous country, high living standards and to root out corruption,” he stated.
Iurie Leanca noted that Moldova does not face problems in the relations with the Customs Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). “Only Russia is our problem. We have very good cooperation relations, including economic, with all the other member states of the CIS or the Customs Union,” he said.
In the same connection, the Premier said the bans imposed by Russia on the import of Moldovan products seriously hit the Moldovan producers and the Russian end-users as well. “So far we haven’t received justified arguments from the Russian Government as to the need to place restrictions on the import of Moldovan products,” he stated.
Iurie Leanca expressed his optimism that the relations with Russia will improve, underlining that the contract for the supply of gas to Moldova signed with Russia’s Gazprom on November 11, which provides for a reduction in the purchase price of gas, is a good signal. “This war will ultimately end. We do not want to lose the Eastern market even if we just started to promote the Moldovan products on other markets. We will overcome this difficult period and will return to the Russian market, but with products of a much higher quality that will meet the European standards,” he stated.
