«Today, the Foreign Ministry of Pridnestrovie has received through existing channels a telegram of the leadership of the Ukrainian railways addressed to the regional branches, indicating that the mechanism existed since 2004 of shipment of imported goods going by rail to Pridnestrovie loses its force from January 1, 2016.
According to the document, in accordance with paragraph 6.2 of the protocol decision signed at the meeting of the Moldovan-Ukrainian Border Commission held on 10−11 December 2015 in Kishinev the shipment of goods going to Pridnestrovie will be carried out exclusively at the station «Bendery-2” and «Rybnitsa”.
It should be noted that Pridnestrovie already faced Moldova’s attempts in 2012 to establish total control over the import of goods going to Pridnestrovie, but at that time the parties managed to resolve the issue during the meeting of subject specialists.
However, in the summer of 2015 Pridnestrovian economic agents started to re-experience difficulties in agreeing on plans of the shipment of goods from the territory of Ukraine going through the Slobodka-export railway station.
Following the results of a series of meetings at the level of relevant experts of the parties, as well as representatives on political issues in August 2015 the situation was stabilized again, thereby the goods imported by economic agents of the PMR continue to be shipped according to the previous scheme. Nevertheless, in mid-October 2015 the problem flared up again, as a result of which all Pridnestrovian goods, going to the Slobodka-export station, ceased to be approved by the Ukrainian railway, and the station itself was excluded from the automated system «Mesplan”.
Meetings of relevant experts carried out on 19 and 23 November 2015 have not yielded any practical results due to highly unconstructive position of the Moldovan side. Moreover, representative on political issues of the Republic of Moldova Victor Osipov shrank from the meeting proposed by Pridnestrovie because, apparently, the RM and Ukraine took decision in principle to act unilaterally and in a non-negotiating way.
According to estimates, only in 2016 because of shattering the scheme of import of goods to Pridnestrovie which was in force for 11 years the PMR’s economic entities can lose around 4.5 mln. US dollars.
At the same time, unilateral and discriminatory nature of actions of Moldova and Ukraine were evident in changing the schedule of passenger trains «Kishinev — Odessa”, considerable efforts were required to start it in 2010, including on the part of Pridnestrovie. Agreeing on changes in the schedule of the passenger train was taken outside the framework of dialogue and without notice to the Pridnestrovian side.
The PMR's MFA considers Kishinev and Kiev’s measures as aimed at the destruction of economically justified schemes of export-import and transit operations that have proven their effectiveness, through the territory of Pridnestrovie. The Foreign Ministry will soon send the corresponding appeal to all «5+2” participants with the request to assist in resolving the emerging problem situation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR urges the Moldovan and Ukrainian sides to reconsider the unilateral decision taken during the meeting of the Joint Border Commission, to abandon this counterproductive step that aggravates Pridnestrovie’s socio-economic situation and will complicate the dialogue between the parties with additional conflict factors.”
