Today the Social Forum of Russia and the Social Forum of Pridnestrovie have signed a memorandum on common understanding and cooperation. The enhancement of interaction between Russian and Pridnestrovian forums began back in 2013 after signing the protocol in the follow-up to the working meeting between Russia's deputy prime minister, presidential envoy on Pridnestrovie, Dmitri Rogozin, and Pridnestrovian President Yevgeny Shevchuk.
It is recalled that in furtherance of this protocol 12 cooperation memorandums were signed in 2014 between a number of Russian and Pridnestrovian ministries and agencies.
The memorandum signed today consolidates the agreements reached in a number of areas — from assistance and support in the humanitarian sphere, including cultural and educational exchange between public organisations and dedicated civil society institutions of Russia and Pridnestrovie, to organisation and support of electoral process monitoring.
«Now we are most of all concerned over security, economy and freedom of movement. Since 1 Jabuary 2016 we will find ourselves in the zone of absolutely free trade where our enterprises will be out of place. On the other hand, Russian agencies treat our goods as originated in Moldova and put bans on them. In its turn, Moldova is imposing a regime of maximum restrictions on us as a pro-Russian region. This puts us in a desperate situation," underscored the chairman of Pridnestrovie's Social Forum, Sergey Smirichinskiy.
According to the secretary of Russia's Social Forum, Alexander Brechalov, the cooperation should be enhanced at the civil society level.
«On signing the memorandum, I suggest that we proceed to discuss a format and priority spheres of the cooperation in order to set it in train right away," said Alexander Brechalov.
As Russia's Social Forum press office reports, the chairwoman of its committee on public diplomacy and compatriots support, Yelena Sutormina, proposed to extend the cooperation between the forums at the expert level.
«In the nearest time we can combine our efforts at the expert level and put up a united front to draw international attention to the issues of Pridnestrovie's citizens," she pointed out.
