Tiraspol, May 22. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The PMR Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting of Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatiev and Russian human rights activist, expert of the Moscow Human Rights Office Oleg Ivannikov.
Vitaly Ignatiev positively assessed the systemic attention of public human rights organizations of the Russian Federation to the situation in Pridnestrovie.
“I hope that your monitoring visit with obtaining first-hand information and studying the situation on the spot, as well as an expert analysis, will become an important contribution to creating a vision of what are the urgent problems in terms of protecting the rights and interests of the Pridnestrovian population among other things, and how to solve them using international mechanisms and the resources that human rights organizations have,” Vitaly Ignatiev said.
During the meeting, the Head of the PMR Foreign Ministry told the interlocutor about the costs and limitations faced by the residents of Pridnestrovie due to the unsettled relationship with the Republic of Moldova and its failure to fulfill the agreements reached within the negotiation process.
The diplomat informed him about the existing problems in the field of freedom of movement, interbank interaction, import of goods to the PMR. Separately, the risks associated with the threats of the introduction of the so-called "second phase" of joint customs and border control at the Kuchurgan checkpoint and the prohibition of entry for vehicles with Pridnestrovian license plates in the territory of Ukraine from September 1 were highlighted.
In this context, a discussion was held on practical steps aimed at strengthening work in terms of observing the legal rights and interests of Russian citizens and compatriots in Pridnestrovie.
“I have been working in the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic for three days already. During this time, I met with representatives of the PMR state authorities, heads of the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Supreme Court. I have collected certain information, which will later be handled by specialists from the Moscow Human Rights Office and will be included in the collection, where we will indicate all those harsh moments that need to be paid attention to. We believe that since 2014, there has been tremendous pressure on the PMR, comparable with a kind of genocide. We suggest contacting international institutions, the United Nations, the European Court of Human Rights,” Oleg Ivannikov said.
In turn, Vitaly Ignatiev expressed the opinion that working with experts from the Moscow Human Rights Office would create additional opportunities to ensure the rights of PMR citizens.
“Human rights are universal, and there is not a single political motivation not to solve these problems. We must not forget that there are the interests of individual human beings behind each letter, behind each line of the agreement. When we signed the Berlin Protocol, restarting the negotiation process, we said that the principle of the interests of the population was at the forefront. Today it is grossly trampled by the Moldovan side, which is unacceptable,” the Minister said.
