What Russia does in Ukraine today is similar to what it did in Moldova in the 1990s. The only difference is that there is now another historical period, considers the first Minister of Foreign Affair of Moldova Nicolae Tiu. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, he said that Russia faces even harsher penalties that will affect its development, IPN reports.
“I think that what Russia does today in Ukraine is a repeat of the acts it took in Moldova. They were lucky then, but today the situation is different. The more they worsen the situation, the harasser the penalties imposed on Russia will be,” said the former minister.
As to the statement of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Grigory Karasin, who said that the Transnistrian region should be offered the status of ‘raion’ with special guarantees within the Moldovan state, Nicolae Tiu said such statements should be made at the negotiating table, not for the media. “This does not seem so serious to me. Judging by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, I think they make such statements in order to change the people’s opinion about what they are doing there, as if they propose settling the conflict in Moldova, which was caused by themselves at the start of the 1990s and hasn’t been yet resolved,” stated Nicolae Tiu.
He also said that the status of the Transnistrian region should be worked out by Moldova’s Parliament because Russia recognized Moldova as an independent and integral state, not only up to the Nistru River. According to him, such a status can be adopted only as a result of negotiations.
“When talks are launched and Russia submits such a proposal there, Moldova should already have a variant similar to Karasin’s proposal, but adjusted to Moldova’s interests. If the Russians proposed, the Moldovan authorities, immediately after they form the government, should contact the Russian side and open talks for adopting the status for this ‘raion’. We should be ready to propose a viable solution that would be in Moldova’s interests. We should be more courageous and insistent. We surely must be diplomatic, but diplomacy allows courage and insistence for promoting our policy for settling the Transnistrian issue,” stated Nicolae Tiu.
