interviews

Pridnestrovie's President admits that his country hasn't done enough to actively promote its diplomatic interests abroad. Igor Smirnov wants to establish closer ties to some of the many members of the United Nations. In this interview, he re-affirms that international recognition of PMR's independence is the main goal.

In a direct style with no diplomatic niceties, Igor Smirnov reveals that he broke out laughing when he read his Moldovan counterpart Vladimir Voronin's strategy for solving their territorial conflict. He calls Voronin's plan "wishful thinking" caused by early election campaigning. Pridnestrovie's President also says that future talks will focus on normalizing relations between Moldova and the PMR.

Alexei Ostrovsky, Chairman of the Russian Duma's Committee for CIS Affairs, says that some political forces want to recognize the independence of the unrecognized countries of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdniestria, while others are against this and yet a third group prefers a "wait and see" attitude.

While Moldova's President Vladimir Voronin blackmails Russia with the threat of NATO membership, he also says he is ready to trade his country's potential NATO membership in return for Russia's backing of what he calls the "re-integration" of Moldova and Pridnestrovie. In this interview, he furthermore declares a need to "express optimism which I can no longer hide."

The overwhelming majority of ethnic Moldovans who live in Pridnestrovie (Transnistria, in Romanian) support independence and statehood rather than absorption into Moldova. That is the conclusion of the leader of the country's largest civil society organization for Moldovans. Valerianus Tulgar is the president of the Union of Moldovans in Pridnestrovie.

Pridnestrovie has to normalize its relations with the governments of Ukraine and Moldova, and find ways for all three parties to coexist peacefully in a shared space. That is the opinion of PMR Parliamentary Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk. The young pro-democracy politician says that "they are our neighbors and we should agree on the terms of living with them."

Will independence-seeking Kosovo set a precedent for other conflicts elsewhere? The answer is yes, if Kosovo becomes independent. In that case, "extrapolation is inevitable" says Bulgarian Professor of History Nina Dyulgerova.

Any status settlement between Moldova and Pridnestrovie has to be based on reality. So says Modest Kolerov, who until recently was one of the top men in the Kremlin dealing with minority protection of Russians abroad.

The Foreign Minister of Moldova says that his country's partnership with the United States is "intense." Andrei Stratan lauds the George W. Bush Millennium Programme, which Moldova is now part of. He also says that Moldova relies on U.S. aid: The United States is the largest foreign aid provider to Moldova.

Unilateral actions usually cause aggression, says Parliamentary Speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk. In this interview, he urges Moldova to scrap a law on Pridnestrovie's future that was passed without any sort of consultation with Pridnestrovie. The young lawyer says that future relations should be based on mutual respect between the two sides.