Tiraspol, February 5. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The First Pridnestrovian TV channel told the story of Crewman Alexander Rzhavitin`s desertion, which the Moldovan media tried to use to discredit Pridnestrovie. In his interview, Rzhavitin notes that his words were wrenched out of context and interpreted to suit Chisinau propaganda.
Alexander Rzhavitin was drafted into the army in 2015. After some time, he left his military unit, crossed the border and ended up in Moldova. In Chisinau, he came under the Moldovan special services` influence, gave interviews to local and European media, which reported about torture and “inhuman treatment” in the PMR army using his words.
According to Rzhavitin, "they told a lot that's untrue."
“They came at night. They already knew that I had escaped and were informed about the whole thing: what and how. They asked questions, I answered them. But everything was readjusted later. Since there was told a lot that was untrue. There were only key facts reported in my first speech in Moldova. But there wasn`t overall picture told,” he explained.
Rzhavitin returned to Pridnestrovie in December 2019. At home, he was detained on the basis of "desertion". As a preventive measure, he was sent to keep performing military service in the army. All this time, the Moldovan media reported about Rzhavitin`s ill-treatment, stirring up propaganda hysteria around the Pridnestrovian deserter figure.
Today, Rzhavitin is still performing service in the armed forces. Crewman is engaged in combat training like the rest of his colleagues. Except he is never assigned to duties where he has to carry weapons. He is also limited in layoffs. Temporarily.
He takes the buzz surrounding his figure in the Moldova media easy.
“I was never beaten me in law enforcement. No one has ever humiliated me there,” Rzhavitin admits.
Meanwhile, a former law enforcement officer of the PMR, Andrey Samoniy, was kidnapped in Moldova. On January 14, 2020, he was detained in the village of Senatovka and taken to an undisclosed location.
The PMR Foreign Ministry, the Pridnestrovian Ombudsman Vyacheslav Kosinsky and the Pridnestrovian delegation to the Joint Control Commission addressed the representatives of the Republic of Moldova on this issue. However, Samoniy`s fate only became known from media reports, according to which Pridnestrovian citizen was imprisoned in the city of Balti.
