The Transnistrian administration’s decision to relocate the ‘Supreme Soviet’ from Tiraspol to Bender shows that they aim to remove the central control bodies from Bender, said Ion Leahu, a former member of the Moldovan delegation to the Joint Control Commission (JCC), IPN reports.

“Chisinau should have reacted at least 20 years ago and shouldn’t have carried out talks with a separatist regime that has no legal right to taken part in talks as a full-fledged side. It’s not too late now too, but nobody in Chisinau accepts this course. The current government’s strategy – to reach a definite result by small steps – de facto creates conditions for Tiraspol to strengthen its positions,” Ion Leahu said in an interview for Radio Free Europe.

According to the Transnistrian administration, the building that housed the self-claimed Transnistrian legislature until now is transferred to the local authorities of Tiraspol and there will be opened kindergartens. “These statements are propagandistic. There will be no kindergarten in a building with seven stories. Even if a kindergarten is set up there, this is not the most important aspect,” believes the former JCC member.

Ion Leahu said that the Transnistrian leader Yevgeny Shevchuk made a more significant statement. He said that the problem of the Transnistrian region’s status must be solved in 2-3 years as political stability without political status is impossible.

The Transnistrian authorities decided to relocate the so-called Supreme Soviet from Tiraspol to Bender without consulting the central control bodies or the JCC, though this is stipulated in the agreements signed earlier, Bender being situated in the Security Zone.

The actions regarded by Chisinau as provocative started in Bender earlier. Initially, the Transnistrian administration banned the Moldovan policeman from moving via Bender in uniform and then tried to disconnect the two Moldovan-administered penitentiaries in Bender from public utilities and set up two additional checkpoints near Varnita.