Transnistria’s referendum to take place on September 17

Tiraspol announced that the referendum on Transnistria’s statute and foreign policy will take place on September 17. The Supreme Soviet of the separatist region will decide on Wednesday about the questioned items, but it is said that one of them will refer to the relationship with Russia, Info-Prim Neo informs, quoting Romanian press. A commission of the foreign policy of Tiraspol’s legislative body decided that one of the questions will tackle the relationship of Transnistria with Russia and another – the relationship with Moldova. The decision on the whole set of questions and other details regarding the referendum will be made on Wednesday by the Supreme Soviet. The initiative of the authorities from Tiraspol was approved after the international community recognized the independence of Montenegro. The inhabitants of Transnistria will decide in the same way about the future of the separatist region. The proposal to organize a referendum for independence was made at the IV extraordinary Congress of the Transnistrian MPs which took place on March 31, 2006. The separatist leader Igor Smirnov stated that he will invite representatives from CIS member countries, as well as from other countries, especially Russian. EU, OSCE and Moldova announced that they will not monitor the event and that they will not recognize its results. At the press conference that took place on Tuesday, July 11, President Vladimir Voronin declared that by organizing this referendum, Tiraspol intends to hide serious problems of the region, specifying that the situation in Transnistria has nothing in common with the one in Kosovo or Montenegro, so it can not be solved using similar mechanisms.