Pridnestrovie Foreign Minister will sign new deals only if Moldova will keep them

If Moldova can't keep its earlier signed agreement then there is no point in signing any new ones. That is the opinion of Pridnestrovie's Foreign Minister, ahead of new status settlement talks with his larger neighbor. Valeri Litskai says that confidence and mutual trust can only be built if both sides start by adhering to what they agreed upon in the recent past.Valeri Litskai, Pridnestrovie's Minister of Foreign Affairs, thinks that the best form of confidence building between his unrecognized country and Moldova is for both sides to start keeping the agreements which they previously signed between them. Otherwise, there is no point in sitting down to negotiate new agreements if the old ones can't be kept first. That was what he told Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva…

22.01.2008

OSCE-head in Tiraspol for talks with Transdniestria"s President, Foreign Minister

OSCE chairman-in-office Ilkka Kanerva visited Transdniestria on Thursday for official talks with the unrecognized country's government. In Tiraspol, he met with President Igor Smirnov, Foreign Minister Valeri Litskai, and leading members of Parliament. He urged all sides to resume direct talks over Transdniestria's future.During a visit Thursday to Tiraspol, the capital of Transdniestria, the head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) called on Moldova and Transdniestria to resume status settlement talks over the disputed territory and welcomed signs that both sides were willing to discuss the free movement of goods, services and people across the Dniester river." - The OSCE has been working intensively with the chief negotiators to restart the 5+2 negotiations," the OSCE chairman-in-office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva, said in a…

18.01.2008

Transdniestria"s opposition-led Parliament squares off against President Smirnov

Transdniestria's opposition-controlled legislature is increasingly facing off against President Igor Smirnov by refusing to pass laws initiated by the executive. In a surprise victory in December 2005, the opposition won a majority in Parliament. The latest standoff took place this week when Parliament rejected changes to the unrecognized country's tax laws.The cabinet of ministers under Pridnestrovie's President Igor Smirnov is facing increasing political resistance from the country's opposition-led Parliament.Over the past month, the 43-member Supreme Council has consistently refused to support the President's legislative initiatives. Since a surprise victory in December 2005, Parliament has been dominated by opposition party Renewal, led by 39 year old Yevgeny Shevchuk, with Smirnov supporters such as the Respublika party now in the minority.On Monday, a Parliamentary committee rejected amendments which Smirnov's cabinet…

17.10.2007

Live and unfiltered, PMR"s President Smirnov answers viewer questions on TV

For two hours straight, Igor Smirnov took live questions over the air from TV viewers in Pridnestrovie. Viewers attacked with hard questions and criticism. None of the calls were pre-screened or filtered.With twenty days left for Christmas, and less than a week to go before Sunday's presidential election, Pridnestrovie's incumbent president Igor Smirnov has gone live on TV to take questions from viewers. Unfiltered and uncensored, callers were able to speak to the candidate on the air.On Sunday, Smirnov appeared live on two local television channels, state-owned TV PMR and the private channel TVS ("Television of Free Choice"). In a talkshow format, he answered the audience's questions for two hours, with no prior filtering of any of the live calls. The broadcasts, which covered the length of the…

04.12.2006