The head of the Congress of the Russian Communities of the Republic of Moldova Valerii Klimenco, Moldova’s representative to the International Council of Russian Compatriots, said that the Russian community in Moldova on July 11 will not vote for the Socialists. The anger stems from an older story, of 2017, when the Chisinau Municipal Council, with the votes of the Socialists and the Liberals, dispossessed the Congress of a lot on which a cultural center for Russian children was to be built.
In a news conference at IPN, Valerii Klimenco said that before 2017, the Chisinau City Hall allocated a lot situated on Calea Ieşilor St for erecting the cultural center on it to the Congress of the Russian Communities. Then, the Congress found an investor, a Italian company, which agreed to construct a 17-story building and to transfer 20% of the area – the first three stories – to the Congress. The company was to sell the other areas that were to be apartments and to recoup the invested money. After this assumed large costs for preparatory works and project documentation, in 2017 the Chisinau Municipal Council decided to withdraw the lot from the Congress on the initiative of a Socialist councilor. The councilors supported the proposal without verifying the invoked arguments.
Valerii Klimenco noted the position of the Liberals was clear as these have a formal attitude towards everything that is Russian, but the stance of the Socialists, who say they are the friends of Russians, cannot be easily accepted. He then warned the Socialists that they can no longer bank on the Russian communities in their future political activities, including in the last presidential elections. “We didn’t vote for the candidate of the Socialists, who do not want good to the Russian children living in the Republic of Moldova. We realize that judging the Socialists and shifting responsibility onto them for this situation is something harsh, but we do it because the party didn’t react somehow to this case, while the initiator of that decision continues to be in the ranks of the Socialists,” he stated.
Valerii Klimenco noted that they will act in this Sunday’s parliamentary elections as in the presidential elections, when the Russian communities didn’t vote for the Socialist candidate. They will vote so until the given Socialist is part of the Socialist team. “Evidently, everyone has the freedom of choice, but the Congress of the Russian Communities of the Republic of Moldova calls on the Russian communities to refrain from supporting the Party of Socialists in the upcoming elections given the described situation,” stated Valerii Klimenco.
