'Soviet Occupation' decree is a matter of domestic affairs which shouldn't be commented by foreigners, Dirk Schuebel

The decree by acting President Mihai Ghimpu declaring June 28 to be the Day of Soviet Occupation and Commemoration of the Victims of the Communist Regime is a matter of domestic affairs that foreign diplomats have no right to interfere into, said Dirk Schuebel, the Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, at a press conference on Friday. The EU official made this statement when asked by Info-Prim Neo to comment on the statements made earlier that day by Russian Ambassador Valeri Kuzmin on 'the Ghimpu decree'. The Russian diplomat stated that Moldova's western partners, too, formulated objections to 'the Ghimpu decree'. According to the Russian ambassador, the objections were still confidential, but he hoped they would be made public soon. Valeri Kuzmin expressed his position at a roundtable meeting, after Communist leader Vladimir Voronin showed his dissatisfaction with the fact that neither the Europeans nor the Americans reacted to the decree. “In my role as a diplomat I am not to intervene in the domestic affairs of an independent country like the Republic of Moldova. In this respect, any politician in this country can propose any decree he would like to propose. I would leave it up to experts to judge whether the timing, in particular, of this decree was right, and of course it should be assessed by the Moldovan politicians themselves. I've read that other politicians of the Alliance (for European Integration) were not consulted on the draft decree before and, of course, such questions should be discussed within the Alliance. But, as I said, I consider this is an affair of domestic politics that we have no right to intervene in”, said the head of the EU Delegation to Moldova. “I am not an expert in wine, so for me it is difficult to judge whether indeed the quality of the wine was the problem with the recent consignment of Moldovan wine (to Russia) or there are any other reasons. However, I hope this problem will be solved soon because I know Russia is a very, if not the most important market for the Moldovan wine”, said Dirk Schuebel when asked to comment on the Moldo-Russian relationship and the recent ban on Moldovan wine imports. He went on to add that he didn't think there was any complication in the Moldo-Russian relations, since he heard both sides saying the relations were overall positive. At the same time, the European ambassador doesn't think the recent developments in the Moldo-Russian relationship can affect the Transnistrian settlement process. “Concerning the 5+2 negotiations, I've heard that quite a successful informal 5+2 meeting was held recently in Vienna. This gives me hope that in the not too far future an official meeting in this format can be held. Altogether, I think there are more positive points than negative with regard to the recent developments in the Transnistrian peace-building process”, stated Dirk Schuebel, the Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova.