MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow sees Chisinau's reaction to Russia's participation in the Victory Day celebrations in the breakaway region of Transnistria as inadequate, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday.
"The statements about the so-called one-sidedness of this trip lack any ground. The Moldovan side knows very well that our meetings in Chisinau did not take place only because of the heavy workload of the authorities of the Republic of Moldova – the Russian side announced its preparedness via diplomatic channels in advance," the ministry said in the statement.
A delegation of senior Russian officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, visited Transnistria on May 9. On Saturday, the delegation was stuck in Moldova after Ukraine and Romania closed their airspace for the Moscow-bound plane. The delegation later returned to Moscow by a passenger plane.
Four boxes filled with Transnistria citizens' signatures petitioning for unification with Russia were confiscated from the plane, according to lawmaker Sergei Zhigarev, a member of the delegation. The Moldovan Foreign Ministry said its authorities confiscated the signatures to verify their legitimacy.
“Such actions contradict the accepted international practice and the Moldovan authorities' claims about their constructive attitude towards the Russian Federation,” the ministry said.
On Sunday, Rogozin said he had delivered to Moscow the signatures of citizens of the Moldovan breakaway republic seeking recognition as an independent state, adding that the Moldovan Special Forces took only a small part of the cargo.
In 1990, the breakaway republic of Transnistria, with a predominantly Russian and Ukrainian population, declared its independence from Moldova fearing its nationalistic government would take a course towards reintegration with Romania.
The move led to armed hostilities in 1992, when Moldova attempted to crack down on the industrially developed Transnistria and subsequently lost control of the region.
Now calm in the region is secured by peacekeeping forces. The country's second largest city, Tiraspol, is seeking international recognition. Moldova has proposed granting autonomy to Transnistria as part of a single state.
