President Igor Dodon said the subject of crossing of the Moldovan-Ukrainian state border by motor vehicles registered in the Transnistrian region is too politicized. According to him, contacting the Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky was a necessity given the erroneous interpretations about a situation of blockage, IPN reports.

After the meeting of the Supreme Security Council, Igor Dodon said that it is not a concession on the part of Chisinau. It is a mechanism agreed in the 5+2 format in 2017. Under this, neutral-design license plates will be issued to owners of motor vehicles registered in the Transnistrian region so that these could travel abroad. With Transnistrian license plates, the owners cannot travel in Europe, if only in Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian authorities recently declared that they will not allow these to enter Ukraine as they do not recognize those plates.

President Dodon noted that the process of obtaining neutral-design license plates goes on, but possibly not to the extent wanted by the authorities. Nevertheless, this process intensified during the last few days. Moreover, to facilitate the access of owners of vehicles registered on the left side of the Nistru, local offices of the Public Services Agency were opened in the region.

The Reintegration Policies Bureau on January 20 announced that the trial regime applied on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border for motor vehicles registered in the Transnistrian region was suspended. According to it, the data collected by the competent bodies during the past ten days will be analyzed to determine the demand for trips to Ukraine and for neutral-design license plates on the part of inhabitants of the Transnistrian region.

Several days earlier, Tiraspol informed the official Chisinau that as of January 24 it will prevent all the types of motor vehicles registered in the Republic of Moldova from crossing Transnistria’s border with Ukraine, in retaliation for the restrictions imposed by Moldova on Transnistrian motor vehicles.