Smirnov accuses Voronin of refusing to implement agreements reached in Moscow

Igor Smirnov accuses Vladimir Voronin of refusing to put the agreements reached a week ago in Moscow into practice. “What happened confirmed once again that the Moldovan authorities are not ready to conduct a dialogue on the basis of principles of equality,” the Transnistrian leader says in a statement issued in response to the Moldovan President’s refusal to go to Tiraspol and meet Smirnov this morning, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Tiraspol administration is surprised at the reasons invoked by the Moldovan authorities as the visa restrictions imposed on the three representatives of the EU and U.S by the Transnistrian authorities have nothing to do with the negotiations between President Voronin and the Transnistrian leader. “Any state has the sovereign right to impose visa restrictions on foreign officials. By such a move, Transnistria wanted to attract the international community’s attention to the continuous restricting of visa issuance on Transnistrian authorities,” the communiqué says. Moldova’s President Vladimir Voronin canceled his visit to Tiraspol in the last moment. The decision was taken after Igor Smirnov banned three diplomats representing the observers to the talks in the 5 +2 format from entering the breakaway region. Voronin and Smirnov were to discuss the measures aimed at building confidence between Chisinau and Tiraspol. The meeting was scheduled on March 18 in Moscow, where the two leaders agreed, convinced by Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, to resume the talks in the 5 +2 format (Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine, and OSCE + the U.S and UE), in the first half of this year.