Liberal-Democrats to inform OSCE Ministerial Council about presence of Russian army

The Liberal-Democratic Party (PLDM) proposes the political parties from Moldova to sign an appeal to the participants in the reunion of the OSCE Ministerial Council, planned for December 4-5 in Helsinki. PLDM proposes other parties to inform the high forum of the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe on the Russian military presence in Moldova and to ask it to resume the discussions on this topic. The statements were made Wednesday, November 19, by the PLDM leaders at a news conference in Info-Prim Neo agency. The Russian military presence in on the Moldovan soil is the largest problem of this country not allowing it to accomplish itself as a democratic and European state, reads the appeal worked out by PLDM and addressed to the OSCE Ministerial Council. “The events of the last summer in the Caucasus proved the Russian military, deployed to the conflict areas contrary to the will of those states, are rather carriers of instability,” the PLDM leaders say. When asked how Russian prime-minister Vladimir Putin can be convinced to withdraw the army, PLDM president Vlad Filat has said “we are not the ones to convince Putin to convince his generals. This thing rests with all the actors involved in this respect.” As for the opinion polls showing a low interest of the citizens living on the Nistru's right bank for the population from the Transnistrian area to get involved in the electoral process from the country and, in general, for the Transnistrian issue, Vlad Filat has said: “In reports of the National TV this issue certainly was to be presented in a certain way and the information should have been informed.” “I think it's a matter of national interest. The parties in the parliament expressed their viewpoint on the high priority of this matter,” the politician specified. Referring to the legal aspects of the Russian troops' staying on the Moldovan territory, the PLDM's first deputy president, the lawyer Alexandru Tanase, has reminded that the Moldovan Constitution itself does not allow for any foreign armies to stay within the country. “This is the first precondition from which one should start. The Tiraspol breakaway regime is not a distinct entity functioning autonomously. Without Russia's political, military and financial support it's obvious Moldova's chances to settle the Transnistrian issue peacefully will significantly grow.” To the list of documents stating the illegality of the Muscovite military presence Tanase adds the law on the principles of regulating the situation in Transnistria unanimously voted by the Parliament in the summer of 2005. There are also international documents as the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the Ilascu case which expressly finds the illegality of the Russian military presence. PLDM's deputy president Mihai Godea says the party's move comes to repeatedly warn that Russia committed internationally at the OSCE summit in Istanbul, “and the Western chancelleries must step up their notifications addressed top Russian decision makers that they resume the pullback of the army and ammunition from Transnistria.” In 1999, in Istanbul, Russia said it would withdraw the army from Moldova, but has never kept her word, invoking the interdiction of the Tiraspol authorities.