Igor Dodon plans to make his first visit as President of Moldova to the Russian Federation, at the start of 2017, and the Russian President Vladimir Putin already made an invitation in this regard to him. The President-elect made such a statement in a program on Moldova 1 channel, IPN reports.
“I planned to do this by the end of this year, but the validation of my mandate was delayed. I already had a meeting with the EU ambassadors working in Chisinau. We spoke about the partnership relations with the EU that will remain unchanged. Restoring the economic relations with the Russian Federation is a priority now that I will definitely manage to achieve,” said Dodon.
The President-elect also said that in the meeting with Putin, he will discuss two main issues – the migration of Moldovans and resumption of the import of Moldovan products into the Russia. “There are about 500,000 Moldovans in Russia officially, but the unofficial figure is much higher. About 200,000 of them violated the regime of stay and now fear to go home as they may be unable to return to their workplaces. Some of them haven’t seen their families for 4-5 years. Also, tens of thousands of Moldovans were banned from entering Russia. I want to solve the problem of these 220,000-250,000 Moldovans in the meeting with Putin. I will ask for amnesty for this category and I hope this will happen next year,” he stated.
Igor Dodon expressed his confidence that he will also solve the problem of the import of Moldovan products into Russia. “It won’t be easy given that Moldova signed an Association Agreement with the EU. But I managed to achieve this for some of the business entities when I wasn’t President. All the business entities should be able to export to the Russian Federation. The losses owing to this ban exceed US$400 million,” he said.
The President-elect noted he will make a visit to Transnistria by this yearend. “The unionists said we do not need Transnistria to unite with Romania. The new Transnistrian leader was chosen by the citizens of Moldova from the left side of the Nistru. That’s why I will go to Tiraspol and will sit at the negating table with the new leader. When we agree a political status, a referendum will be held for the people to decide,” he stated.
Igor Dodon also said that he will use his prerogatives as Head of State to call early legislative elections. Thus, he will not nominate the Premier if the Government is replaced and this will lead to the dissolution of Parliament. He will also initiate a referendum on the amendment of the Constitution to seek more powers for the President or to dissolve Parliament if the parliamentary alliance blocks his initiatives.
