Dumitru Braghis: The lies said by President Voronin are beyond the limit of common sense

President Vladimir Voronin compares the state in which the Transnistrian conflict was at the beginning of his first mandate with “a field smartly mined” that he had to un-mine for 7 years. The head of the state made the statements in a TV program broadcasted on Friday evening, April 25, attempting to explain the long duration in which the Transnistrian conflict was not solved, although this was an electoral promise of his, uttered back in the 2001 parliamentary elections. “Transnistrian customs officers sat in Odessa bars affixing seals on goods. Who gave them those seals?” asked himself Vladimir Voronin. He hinted there were officials on the Nistru’s both banks who had interests in the area and were not willing to settle the conflict. “Who was sitting on the threshold of the Presidential Palace and burnt portraits of Putin? Braghis!” said the President. Asked by Info-Prim Neo to comment Vladimir Voronin‘s allegation of having burnt the portrait of Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2003, Dumitru Braghis has stated: “The lies said by President Voronin lately are beyond the limits of the common sense!” In November 2003, leaders of the main non-Communist parties from Moldova – Dumitru Braghis among them – organized a meeting in front of the Presidential Palace asking the President not to sign the so-called Kozak memorandum. That document developed by Kremlin intended to solve the Transnistrian conflict through Moldova’s federalization. President Vladimir Voronin later reasoned his refusal to sign the Russian memo by the lack of coordination with the OSCE, but also because of some stipulations able to legitimize the unrecognized republic before constituting the federation. Info-Prim Neo specifies that Russian flags and Putin’s portraits were burnt at demonstrations in front of the Russian embassy in Chisinau, on November 25, 2003, by members and sympathizers of the Christian-Democrat People’s Party, among which – the MPs Vlad Cubreacov and Stefan Secareanu. The issue of March 2, 2004, of the Bucharest newspaper Gardianul quotes Vlad Cubreacov as saying: “Yes, I set fire to Russia’s flag because this country does not withdraw its occupation troops from my country ". The same articles quotes Stefan Secareanu as saying: "If the fire helped to withdraw the Russian troops, I would burn some 2,000-3,000 of Putin portraits!"