Putin to order hit on Moldova president, Chisinau press says

Moldova's "Jurnal de Chisinau" says Putin can order the murder of Moldovan strongman Vladimir Voronin, a former Soviet general

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - The only way that Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin can avoid a jail term for the crimes that he has committed is if he gets killed by Russia's President Vladimir Putin first. That is the theory of Moldovan newspaper Jurnal de Chişinău, writing on the two main risks to the future of Moldova's Communist strongman.

Authoritarian leader Vladimir Voronin has to follow orders from Russia or his life is at risk, the newspaper believes. The former Soviet-era General has Russian citizenship and if he doesn't carry out Putin's orders, Putin will have him "offed", says a newly published theory.

In case Voronin refuses to carry out the orders from Moscow, Putin can order murder of his Moldovan counterpart, writes the newspaper in its latest edition. The Jurnal does not indicate what those orders are, but merely explains to its readers that Vladimir Voronin is guilty of numerous crimes within Moldova and that he is only saved by his tight control of the regime's security forces.

As shown in this 1990 file photo, Vladimir Voronin held the rank of General in the Soviet Union. The Communist leader is now head of the failed state of Moldova, and local press says that he is guilty of numerous crimes due to the heavyhanded way that he rules Europe's poorest country.

" - Since 2001 to this day, Voronin has broken human rights, and pursued and flung into prisons so many people that he would not avoid in any way a trial after the expiration of the mandate", writes Jurnal de Chisinau.

The paper is convinced that "the communist leader will not find refuge in any lawful state but only in Russia. (..) He either sings under Moscow’s pipe, or falls under action of the recently adopted law, allowing Russian agents to punish enemies of the Kremlin abroad by "specific means and methods."

The newspaper underlines that "murders, committed by the Russian secret services abroad have been showing that at present the Kremlin doesn’t have neither any legal restrictions, nor moral interdictions. Everybody might be threatened."

Soviet general and Russian citizen

Vladimir Voronin was a Soviet general until 1991, when the Soviet Union disintegrated. His status was automatically transferred to that of a Russian general, a post which he held until 1992. After 1992, he then on a regular basis received a general's pension from Moscow.
As several newspapers in Moldova have repeatedly pointed out recently, it would be impossible to receive such a pension without holding Russian citizenship. Former Moldovan presidential advisor Sergiu Mocanu has confirmed that Vladimir Voronin holds Russian citizenship, while Voronin himself has denied it and refused to show his Russian passport.

Unlike democratically elected Igor Smirnov, the president of Transdniestria, Vladimir Voronin was never directly elected by the voters to the top post in his country. Instead, he was merely appointed by to the presidency by the Moldovan parliament, in which his party - the Communist Party - holds a majority of the deciding votes.

With the discovery of Voronin's Russian citizenship, he should now resign, Jurnal de Chisinau believes. The newspaper writes that holding Russian citizenship deprives Voronin of the legitimacy of his appointment to the post of the President of the Republic of Moldova.

See also:
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» Moldovans in PMR publish book denouncing Moldova
» US foreign policy org: "Moldova is a failed state"

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