The so-called customs committee of the unrecognized republic of Transnistria commented on a journalistic investigation by RISE Moldova about the provision of certificates for the export of fruit from inexistent orchards by phytosanitary inspectors from Chisinau to Transnistrian companies. It described the investigation as ‘deliberate misinformation with the aim of spoiling the image of Transnistria and its customs service and of creating an atmosphere of distrust in the Russian-Transnistrian relations’. For their part, the journalists of RISE Moldova describe the reaction of the Transnistrian customs administration as ‘distortion of the meaning of the journalistic investigation’, IPN reports.
In a statement published on its website, the customs authority says that it carried out an investigation following the information disseminated by the Moldovan electronic media and reached the conclusion that the export of fruit in the volumes indicated by the Moldovan sources didn’t take place. “The companies Alvi Grupp SRL and Dufrimol SRL didn’t export fruit from the territory of Transnistria to Russia,” it is said in the statement of the Transnistrian customs committee.
Asked by IPN to comment on the statement, the author of the investigation, the editor of the Russian-language department of RISE Moldova Vladimir Thoric said he is surprised at such a reaction because the Transnistrian customs officers hadn’t been accused of something. Thus, in their statement they distorted the meaning of the investigation about the ghost orchards.
“They say that facts that are not even included in the investigation are erroneous. The customs officers probably didn’t read the investigation “Export from phantom orchards”, which is available in Russian too on the Internet. It’s strange that they call ‘misinformation’ their invented statement about the export of fruit by two companies from Transnistria to Russia. But the journalists proved that the certificates for the export of fruit grown in ‘orchards’ in Caterinovca are false because there is no orchard there. Thus, this fruit could have been grown anywhere, not in Caterinovca, and could not have been exported from there. That’s why the information about the origin of the goods in the orchards of Caterinovca, which was indicated by phytosanitary inspectors of Chisinau in the certificates allowing export to Russia, was untrue from the start,” said the journalist.
Vladimir Thoric voiced hope that in the future, the customs committee will attentively read the investigations and will stop to ignore the official requests from the mass media over issues of public interest.
