| Chisinau is preparing for the CIS summit Victor Stepaniuc is the second most important figure after President Vladimir Voronin in the ruling Communist Party of Moldova, the leader of the majority faction in parliament. In a parliamentary republic, such as Moldova, the faction, which has two-thirds of the parliamentary mandates, can practically do everything - it elects the president, appoints the prime minister, determines the country's foreign policy course, and controls internal affairs. The small parliamentary opposition is allowed to express its opinion, but it does not play a role in major decisions taken by the majority. This situation will persist as long as the majority faction is united. Contrary to the opposition's predictions, there has not yet been a split among the communists; parliament still supports the party leader, President Voronin.
Svetlana GAMOVA, correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, talks with Victor STEPANYUK.
-- On October 7, the CIS summit will take place in Chisinau. What do you expect from him?
- To make the Commonwealth really work. And a single space was actually restored. Isolation has never been a good thing. Borders within the CIS must remain open for the promotion of goods, labor, and cultural values. Not all of our economic partners in the Commonwealth understand this, continuing to protect their own interests and forgetting about common ones. But if desired, the CIS can be built like the European Union. Considering the geographical location of our country, it is clear that everything that happens in it will be influenced by the western direction. But after the Communist Party came to power in 2000, we built special, priority relations with Russia, and basically the people support this policy. Our voters understand that the country’s economy cannot exist without the East; there are sales markets and demand there. This is especially important for our enterprises, which are in a state of degradation. It has always been beneficial for us to be friends with Russia, and it will be so in the future.
-- Right-wing parties demand that the authorities withdraw from the CIS and join NATO. The Christian Democratic People's Party (CDPP) is going to hold an action under these slogans on the eve of the CIS summit. What do you intend to do: ban demonstrations, disperse them?
- If the city authorities allow the Christian Democratic Party to hold a rally, let them do it. No one is going to disperse the demonstrators if they behave decently and avoid riots.
Right-wing parties in Moldova are trying to pit the Western world against Russia. In their opinion, the republic must decide who it is with - the backward and archaic East or the progressive and civilized West. This is a primitive approach. And it is directed not only against Russia, but also against the overwhelming majority of the population of Moldova, which strives to be friends with those who understand us and help us. Thanks to ties with the East, the economic decline in the country has been stopped, although it is miniscule, but there is already progress in the economy, we are slowly emerging from the crisis.
As for joining NATO, I am sure that if we held a referendum on this issue, 80% of the population on the right bank of the Dniester would be against it. And if there was a joint survey with Transnistria, this figure would increase significantly. It is not clear to me how the parties that were in power at one time signed an agreement on Moldova’s participation in the Partnership for Peace program. What kind of partnership is this, under the auspices of which NATO bombed Yugoslavia and killed civilians there?
-- At opposition rallies there are demands to replace the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Transnistria with “blue helmets” from other countries.
- For now, everything should remain as it is - until the draft agreement on the unification of the country on the terms of federalization, initiated by the OSCE, is implemented. While Tiraspol and Chisinau have divergent views on the problem, I think it will be resolved within a year and a half. Then the question may arise about changes in the structure of the peacekeeping forces. There are proposals to transfer the peacekeeping mission under the auspices of the OSCE. We can agree with this, but it is premature to replace peacekeepers.
-- During the CIS summit, the right may demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria.
-- Moldova, according to the constitution, is a neutral state within the borders of 1990 (i.e., including Transnistria). Therefore, we are against the presence of foreign troops on our territory. At the Istanbul OSCE summit, Russia pledged to eliminate its military presence in Moldova by the end of this year. Some people believe that the main thing is for a Russian soldier to leave the country. But then what to do with more than two thousand tons of shells and weapons? At the very least, a task force of Russian troops is guarding military warehouses. Although we have information that weapons are “leaking” from there. What will happen if the arsenals are left without supervision? Therefore, we believe that the weapons should be removed first, then the soldiers. Even if Russia does not meet the OSCE deadlines.
-- Privatization begins in Transnistria. There is an opinion that Tiraspol is in a hurry to privatize large factories so that Moldova does not get anything...
- I don't think that's the reason. Here the same option that existed in Moldova - the desire of individuals to warm up their hands on sales. From the point of view of a market economy, we welcome the privatization processes in Pridnestrovie. But we cannot agree with the political one, since privatization is not carried out according to the laws of the Republic of Moldova. If investors are domestic, that’s one thing. If they are foreign, and this is likely, the sales transactions will turn out to be illegitimate.
-- The Ministry of Economy of Moldova says that there are already investors and they are mainly Russians.
— Most likely they will buy stakes in Transnistrian enterprises, but then they will have to legalize all this in Chisinau.
-- The birthday of the Russian president coincides with the CIS summit in Chisinau. Will there be any surprises in this regard?
- Our people love the Russian president, even the opposition respects him. There will certainly be surprises... What kind? Secret. We don’t want the Russian president to find out about all this in advance after reading your newspaper.
Today, a meeting of the Council of Heads of Special Services of the CIS Countries is being held in the Moldovan capital. The chief security officers of the Commonwealth discuss the problems of the joint fight against international terrorism. They will convey their proposals to the heads of state of the CIS, who will gather for a summit here in Chisinau on October 7th. The agenda of the meeting included a draft anti-terrorist program of the Commonwealth. Recently, the Information and Security Service (ISS) of Moldova detained the head of a Chechen criminal group, Mavsar Ibragimov, who extorted 80 thousand dollars from a Chisinau businessman. Ibragimov’s group provided financial support to militants in Chechnya. And the day before, Moldovan border guards detained four Chechen militants while crossing the Romanian-Moldovan border, one of whom was Maskhadov’s bodyguard, who was seriously wounded and was heading to the West for treatment. The Moldovan border service handed over the detainees to the Russian special services. Svetlana GAMOVA, Chisinau Interviewed by Svetlana GAMOVA |
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