Gheorghe Duca in Tiraspol's blacklist

Transnistrian border guards did not allow the president of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova Gheorghe Duca to enter Transnistria. The incident happened on February 27 at the border crossing point in Dubasari. Gheorghe Duca was going to Ukraine by his car for a private visit, Info-Prim Neo reports. “This is an abuse by the anticonstitutional Transnistrian regime, which occupied a part of the national territory by force of arms in 1992. It took more than half a million people hostage and dare to impose restrictions on our own territory threatening us with guns,” Gheorghe Duca says in a statement. According to the academician, when he showed his passport, he was asked what post he held and was told to wait. In about half a hour, the 'border guard' told him he cannot cross the border and should go back, without offering explanations. On February 22, the EU Council of Foreign Ministers lifted the travel ban imposed on the Transnistrian leaders, at the request of the Moldovan authorities. Three of them had been earlier struck off a similar list of Brussels. “Regretfully, the official Chisinau's gesture of goodwill was not understood and appreciated. The separatists continue to fortify themselves and draw up 'blacklists' against Moldovans,” Gheorghe Duca said. Tiraspol's political representative at the Transnistrian conflict settlement talks Vladimir Yastrebcheak could not be found for comment. Sources in his anteroom said he was on a trip and will be unavailable until Thursday.