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Presidential challenger Safonov launches campaign attacks on Smirnov
Back in the race for president of Pridnestrovie, outspoken Smirnov-critic Andrey Safonov has launched strong attacks on the current president. He accuses Igor Smirnov of being inept and lacking in "intellectual resources". The election takes place Sunday.
Of 3 presidential challengers, Andrey Safonov considers himself the strongest opposition to incumbent president Igor SmirnovTIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - "The ineptness and incapacity of the current president to solve complex social and economic problems, to answer basic questions and needs of the twenty-first century, the obvious lack of effective intellectual resources in the environment of the President, all of that made it inevitable that an opposition would appear on the political scene", said Andrey Safonov, in one of his stops on the campaign trail in Pridnestrovie today.
Campaigning with a fury for the top post in the unrecognized country, Safonov is biting into current president Igor Smirnov with strong words. The former history teacher turned journalist is the owner and editor of opposition newspaper Novaia Gazeta. With a print run of 30,000 it is one of the largest opposition voices in Pridnestrovie (in English also called Transnistria as well as Transdniester).
Safonov has previously received funding for his opposition activities from the United States Embassy in Chisinau, Moldova. Despite the fact that the United States was founded by a unilateral declaration of independence, just like Pridnestrovie, the U.S. is nevertheless seen by many voters in PMR as a country which wishes to liquidate their right to self-determination. Official U.S. policy is still stuck in the late eighties / early nineties and considers Pridnestrovie a part of Moldova; with the State Department not yet prepared to recognize the statehood of the de facto independent country.
Safonov was asked by Tiraspol's New Region Press if it was not a handicap that he was seen by voters as someone who had received American money for opposition activities, and that this gave him an image as a pro-Moldovan and pro-American politician. The candidate answered that he did not consider it a problem:
" - When voters ask me, what should be Pridnestrovie's policy, should it be pro-Russian, pro-Ukranian, pro-Moldovan or pro-Western, there can only be one single answer: It must be pro-Pridnestrovie," said the presidential candidate.
- Presidential contender favors unification with Moldova
Concerning the Moldova/PMR status settlement, Andrey Safonov differs markedly from Igor Smirnov and the majority of the voters who in the recently held 17 September referendum rejected unification with Moldova by 94%.
Safonov suggest that "a federative model, with some elements of a confederation, will do... Since 2000, all plans of the conflict settlement have balked at a federative model. Therefore, exactly such a model should serve the basis for conflict settlement".
He suggests that as a starting point, the two sides base negotiations on the 2003 Kozak Memorandum as well as the 7-step plan proposed in 2005 by Ukraine's president Viktor Yushchenko.
" - It is possible that it takes a long time to sort out the independent status of our republic, but, according to the various plans proposed, they all adhere to 'the golden mean' of compromise: Federalization with elements of confederation", said the opposition candidate.
As part of the status settlement, Andrey Safonov also proposed a synchronized, coordinated demilitarization of both Pridnestrovie and Moldova under the supervision of the guarantor states, Russia and Ukraine, and with the participation of all mediators and observers in the "5+2" format of status settlement talks. Safonov is also prepared to undertake a structural reform of existing state organs and institutions in Pridnestrovie. He proposes doing away with the conscript system and instead converting it to an all-volunteer force with more emphasis on training and technology, similar to the United States Army. He also wants to close the current Ministry of State Security, Pridnestrovie's security service, and replace it with offices of information and counter espionage.
An opinion poll held last week indicated that 18% of voters were prepared to cast their ballot for Safonov.
See also:
» Outspoken Smirnov-critic Safonov launches presidential bid in Pridnestrovie
Moldova Parliament Speaker Marian Lupu met with the Speaker of Transdniestria's Parliament Yevgeny Shevchuk in Brussels on Wednesday. Yevgeny Shevchuk had been invited to the Belgian capital by the European Union. On Thursday he is expected to address a conference at the European Parliament about 'de facto' independent states. . . 
