Vlad Filat and Mihai Ghimpu lay flowers separately

PM Vlad Filat laid flowers at the commemorative stone of the victims of deportations near the Railway Station in Chisinau. He said that “70 years ago, the current territory of Moldova was occupied by the Soviet Union as a consequence of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, which was condemned in Moldova through political decisions many times”, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vlad Filat mentioned Moldova’s Declaration of Independence condemned exhaustively those events, which caused many victims through reprisals and deportations. Filat said he came to honor those who endured suffering under the Stalinist regime. Asked why he came alone, without his partners from the Alliance for European Integration, PM Filat said it was Liberal-Democrat Party’s decision, which considered necessary to commemorate the victims of Stalinism. “The other AEI members took individual decisions as well”, he said. Besides, Filat thinks the place chosen by Liberal-Democrats is the most relevant one. June 28 was declared through presidential decree the Day of Soviet Occupation and Commemoration of Victims of Communism. Acting President Mihai Ghimpu, who issued the decree, laid flowers in the Great National Assembly Square, where a commemorative stone of victims of communist regime was installed. He was accompanied by the members of the presidential Commission for researching communist crimes in Moldova and City Hall officials. After the AEI's meeting this morning, Democrat leader Marian Lupu reiterated he wouldn’t participate in the commemoration ceremony, while Our Moldova Alliance’s leader Serafim Urechean declined to comment.