Oleg Smirnov's party to campaign for Ravnopravie movement in Transnistria

The Patriotic Party from Transnistria (PPT), led by Oleg Smirnov, the son of the Tiraspol leader, Igor Smirnov, will campaign for the pro-Russian movement Ravnopravie in the parliamentary race of spring 2009. Representatives of the two parties signed a cooperation memo on Tuesday in Chisinau, in the presence of media, Info-Prim Neo reports. The chairman of the PPT's executive committee, Igor Ivanenko, has said the parties decided to cooperate given their similitude of political principles: the economic and political integration of ex-Soviet states with Russia, building a social state, opposing nay form of nationalism. The PPT also backs Ravnopravie's position to render Russian a special status in Moldova. The PPT will campaign for Ravnopravie and will call its members and other parties to support this movement. “Moldova and Transnistria are two independent states. Transnistria allows the dual citizenship, so the residents having Moldovan citizenship can participate in the elections as was the case for the Russian Duma or the Ukrainian Rada,” Ivanenko said. As the Transnistrian authorities do not allow opening Moldovan polling stations on the Nistru's left bank, the PPT eyes to help citizens in carrying them to the right bank to vote. Ravnopravie's leader Valery Climenco avoided to comment Ivanenko's statement on the existence of 'two independent states'. Instead he said he was ready to include into his movement's list for the Moldovan parliament the best representatives of the PPT. But Ivanenko has said no his party has made no decision as to sending members into the Moldovan parliament. The Ravnopravie Movement hopes to gain 10-11% of votes in the coming poll. “Traditionally, the pro-Russian parties did not manage to go past the 6% threshold, but they gathered a total of 8%. Now we're alone on this segment and these 8% shall come to us. If we add some 20-25 thousand votes from Transnistria, we'll reach to have 10-11%,” Valery Climenco reckons. In the 2005 elections, Ravnopravie got 2.83% of the ballots. The PPT was created in August, 2006, and has 1,400 members, according to its web page. Oleg Smirnov is a member in the Transnistrian parliament.