Translated material
If it weren't for the summit...
The Russian Prime Minister is expected in Chisinau
Today, a summit of heads of government of the CIS opens in Chisinau, during which it is expected to adopt a strategy for the economic development of the Commonwealth for the period until 2020. As the head of the CIS Executive Committee Sergei Lebedev noted at a meeting with President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin the day before, the significance of the summit is increasing against the backdrop of Chisinau's upcoming chairmanship of Moldova in the CIS from January 1, 2009.The head of the Russian delegation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will meet with the Moldovan president after the summit. This will be an important event, since Mr. Putin will visit Chisinau for the first time since his visit to Moldova to sign a memorandum on the Transnistrian settlement, known as the “Kozak plan,” was disrupted five years ago in November 2003. At that time, support groups arrived from Moscow were already working in Chisinau, but Vladimir Voronin, who had previously initialed the document, suddenly refused to sign it under pressure from the West.
Then there were even more problems in relations between the two countries. On the eve of the parliamentary elections in February 2005, the ruling Party of Communists, headed by Vladimir Voronin, abandoned its previous pro-Russian slogans and took a pro-Western course. In the same year, Chisinau, with the assistance of the West and Ukraine, organized an economic blockade of Transnistria. And in the spring of 2006, Moscow banned the import of Moldovan wines and cognacs into the country, over 80% of which were supplied to Russian markets.
The spat turned out to be disastrous for the Moldavian economy. If in 2005 the volume of industrial production in the republic grew by 7%, then in 2006 it fell by 4.8%, and in 2007 by another 2.7%. In the fall of 2007, the road to Russia was again opened for Moldovan wines, which had a beneficial effect on economic statistics. During January-June 2008, the production of food products and alcoholic beverages increased by 11.84%, which ensured an overall increase in production volume of 4%. After the meeting of the Moldovan and Transnistrian presidents took place this spring for the first time after a seven-year break, observers started talking about a “thaw” in relations between Chisinau and Moscow.
The introduction of the “wine embargo” made residents of the republic doubt the prospects for cooperation with the Russians, but today, judging by polls, they assess it positively, Dmitry Bragish, leader of the Social Democracy Party, told Vremya Novostey. According to him, the normalization of relations is also evidenced by the frequent meetings of officials at various levels.
Bilateral ties have improved thanks to the efforts of Moscow , the leader of the Equality movement, Valery Klimenko, explained to VN: “The Moldovan authorities, on the eve of the parliamentary elections in March 2009, are only demonstrating to the pro-Russian electorate that Russia is still our ally. And at the same time, they approve the draft concept of education, which prohibits training in universities in Russian for lawyers and doctors, and in other popular specialties.”
There are no less difficulties in relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol. The Transnistrian settlement has reached a dead end, the editor-in-chief of the Moldavskie Vedomosti newspaper Dmitry Chubashenko admitted in an interview with VN: “It is obvious that Voronin and Smirnov do not want to come to an agreement. Moscow cannot reconcile them. But the West does not want this reconciliation under the auspices of Russia.” Our interlocutor added: “If it weren’t for the CIS summit, Putin probably wouldn’t have come here.”