Tiraspol, January 11. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. With the adoption of new amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova, the Moldovan side gets an indulgence to destroy the negotiation process between Tiraspol and Chisinau. This was stated to journalists by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR Vitaly Ignatiev.
“This provocation is also aimed at trying to change the status of Pridnestrovie in the dialogue. Today we are an equal party in the international negotiation process [5 + 2 format]. And there should be no additional restrictions, barriers, pressure, including criminal one," Ignatiev noted.
Recall that at the end of 2022, the Moldovan Parliament adopted in the first reading a bill introducing eight new articles into the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova, including “Separatism” and “Conspiracy against Moldova”, as well as several new concepts (“anti-constitutional subject”, “illegal information structure "). Legal experts suggested that the amendments could be directed, among other things, against the inhabitants of Pridnestrovie.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR turned to the political representative of the Republic of Moldova in the negotiation process, Oleg Serebryan, with a demand to give a full explanation of the draft law. “Unfortunately, we received the most contentless answer, which did not clarify almost any of the questions raised. It [answer] does not satisfy us at all,” the Head of the Foreign Ministry of Pridnestrovie said.
Vitaly Ignatiev drew attention to the fact that the changes made to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova allow for a broad interpretation and can allow politically motivated criminal cases to be initiated against residents of the PMR for any reason.
“All this concerns us, which is why we made a substantive request to the Moldovan side. But the response we received did not convince us that Moldova would not implement those measures to repress Pridnestrovie. On the contrary, as we considered, the answer suggests that Chisinau does not exclude the possibility of such an implementation. Therefore, we appeal to the international participants in the negotiation process so that everyone shows political and diplomatic will and does not allow this,” Vitaly Ignatiev emphasized.
He also added that Oleg Serebryan's response "contained accusations against Pridnestrovie that were untrue and speculations about human rights."
“This is even though our citizen Andrey Samoniy has been in the Moldovan dungeons since January 2020, and it is against Pridnestrovie that pressure measures, restrictions on freedom of movement, politically motivated criminal prosecution are being applied, and Chisinau does not comply with the agreements that oblige the Moldovan side to remove these problems,” the Head of the PMR Foreign Ministry said.
