Political parties demand withdrawal of Russian army from Moldova

The European Action Movement (MAE) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) FROM Moldova picketed the Russian embassy to Chisinau Wednesday demanding for the withdrawal of the Russian army from Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. MAE president Anatol Petrencu has said the action takes place in the wake of Russian premier Vladimir Putin’s coming to Chisinau for the CIS prime-ministers summit. “We want to inform the Russian leadership about the problem. Pulling back the Russian army could be a concrete step in settling the Transnistrian conflict, since it’s well known that the presence of the Russian army in Transnistria encourages secessionism,” Petrencu said. And PNL leader Vitalia Pavlicenco opines the presence of the Russian army is a crucial problem hampering Moldova to become a free and independent state, able to decide its fate toward NATO and the EU, and the main cause of the Moldovan poverty and lack of political pluralism. The Liberal Party also announces it will organize Thursday protests against the Russian military presence in Moldova, as the CIS summit will start in Chisinau. Russia committed at the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999 to pull out its armament and troops from Moldova till the end of 2002, but the commitment was not fully observed. According to some data, from 20 000 to 40 000 tonnes of armament and ammunition would stay in a store near Colbasna village, 2 km from the Ukrainian border,. Russian ambassador to Chisinau Valery Kuzmin recently stated Russia would not withdraw its troops and armament from Moldova’s soil because of the impasse of the talks and because Transnistria is against.