Referendum is reaction to blockade of Pridnestrovie

Ethnic Moldovans in Tiraspol campaigning for independence and against a vote to join with Moldova

MOSCOW (Tiraspol Times) - Sunday's referendum in Pridnestrovie is a response to a de facto blockade that is damaging the region's economy, Russia's foreign minister said Friday.

The referendum, which was initiated by parliament in late March and scheduled for September 17, is designed to determine Pridnestrovie's future foreign policy course - whether it wants international recognition and free association with Russia, or whether it should be part of Moldova.

" - The referendum is a reaction to the blockade that has effectively been imposed on Pridnestrovie, an economic blockade that is hurting the region's economy and, needless to say, hurting its people," Sergei Lavrov said, adding that it was also hurting Ukraine, one of the unrecognized country's largest trading partners.

" - I hope that common sense will prevail and conditions will be created for resuming political dialogue," he said.

In recent days, political campaigning has taken over Pridnestrovie, with posters
Reflecting the political posistions of the nearly 400,000-strong electorate, most of the campaign material advocates independence. As recognized in several reports published by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, even ethnic Moldovans who live in Pridnestrovie are, for the most part, opposed to joining with Moldova and have no truck with any talk of a common state. Some of the strongest advocates for an independent Pridnestrovie have been ethnic Moldovans, actively seen in the streets of Tiraspol and most other cities during the current bout of referendum campaigning.

Disregard of referendum shows hollow commitment to democracy

In a formal statement earlier this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry rebuked the anti-democratic stand taken by authorities of Moldova and some other European countries that have dismissed as illegitimate the forthcoming vote.

“ - It is scarcely correct to ignore the referendum in Pridnestrovie, to say nothing of disregarding it,” the Foreign Ministry said. The statement, well received in Tiraspol, confirms what the locals perceive as double standards by countries which profess to be defenders of democracy -- but whose commitment to democracy is hollow, according to Tiraspol, because they only support democracy when it suits their own political interests.

The central issue which the election commission of Pridnestrovie are putting up for the plebiscite concerns the priority guidelines of the region’s future development, the ministry said.

The West has so far refused to legally recognize Pridnestrovie's independence. In response, Russia argues that recognizing the sovereignty of Kosovo - actively sought by the predominant Albanian population in the historically Serbian region - would serve as a precedent for legalizing the status of other separatist regions in former Soviet republics.

Pridnestrovie, often called Transnistria, was illegally merged with Moldova in a World War II landgrab by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Before that date, it was never part of Moldova at any previous time in history. For the better part of 2,500 years, the Dniester river which separates the two has been an international border. Stalin's forced union of Pridnestrovie and Moldova was declared "null and void" by the latter in its own declaration of independence, in 1991.(With information from RIA Novosti)