Chances that Vladimir Voronin and Igor Smirnov reach agreement on Transnistrian conflict are null, ex-presidential counselor says

The settlement of the Transnistrian conflict on the basis of the agreements reached by Moldova President Vladimir Voronin and the Tiraspol leader Igor Smirnov have no chance for success, considers the leader of the People’s Action, Sergiu Mocanu, a former presidential counselor, Info-Prim Neo reports. Sergiu Mocanu told a news conference on Wednesday, 16 April, that the solution for the conflict would be possible on condition Igor Smirnov had been replaced by Tiraspol speaker Yevgeni Shevchuk. “Many attempts have been made to organize early presidential elections in Transnistria by May, as Shevchuk was to become a president with whom Voronin would be able to find common ground. Yet after the presidential elections in Russia, this scenario failed simply because Igor Smirnov is backed by representatives of the Russian military-industrial complex which was, in a way, offended by Vladimir Putin who proposed Dmitry Medvedev for presidency and not Ivanov (first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov – e.n.) on whom Smirnov banked,” Sergiu Mocanu explained. Mocanu maintains that at the meeting in Bender, Vladimir Voronin tried to play the Transnistrian card for the last time in his political career. Defying the West, and going the Russian way, the President exposed, once again, Moldova to the danger of marginalization and isolation, showing he definitely gave up the course of European integration. “Under the pretext of getting closer those two banks of the Nistru, in Bender Voronin and Smirnov had the same thought: Moldova should be definitely nailed to Russia before Ukraine becomes a member of NATO,” said Sergiu Mocanu. He is certain that the last developments in the Transnistrian matter come to confirm the justice of the strategy launched by his People’s Action Movement: Integrating Moldova into the EU only with the territory it controls. Exactly this political option disturbed the power in Chisinau and its bosses from Moscow, believes the leader of the People’s Action. The congress of constituting the People’s Action took place 4 months ago. Three months ago the formation applied to be registered with the Justice Ministry. It refused to register the bylaws of the Action, and it sued the Ministry because it considers the explanation as legally groundless. The formation plans to resume the registration process. The People’s Action will ask the Justice Ministry to register its statute on the basis of those 4,500 signatures which were not contested, Mocanu says.