Eurasia Press & News
RUSSIA, MOLDOVA
The Kremlin stands ready to write off the Moldovan Communist Party leader, presumes the influential Kommersant newspaper of Moscow.
In its article about the last Friday’s meeting of the Presidents of Russia and Moldova in Sochi (Russia), Kommersant drew attention to the fact that after that conversation President Dmitry Medvedev did not even come out with Voronin to the press to traditionally make statements concerning the talk. And Kommersant was told in the Kremlin administration that the official Moscow would have dealings “with the democratic coalition governing in the Republic of Moldova”.
The newspaper stressed that the Friday meeting had been requested by President Voronin himself, who is accomplishing his second and final term of presidential office, and that the conversation in Sochi had “a pronouncedly formal character”.
As for the news release published by the Kremlin press service, it consisted of only one sentence saying that the parties discussed issues of economic interaction, in particular overcoming of decline in bilateral trade and economic cooperation, and regional problems, including those pertaining to Transnistrian conflict settlement.
Kommersant wrote Dmitry Medvedev made it totally clear that Moscow has resigned itself to the perspective of Mr. Voronin’s losing his absolute power in Moldova, and is ready to start establishing ties with his opponents from the democratic coalition.
A source in the Russian presidential administration told Kommersant, “The parliamentary majority parties [the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party, the Democratic Party, and the Moldova Noastra Alliance] are not causing Russia’s irritation. They are not questioning cooperation with us as with a major trade partner. For us, it is essential that these forces have fixed in their programs a positive relationship with the Russian Federation”.
The source also said that the negotiations on providing a US$500 million credit for Chisinau will be continued as soon as it becomes clear who will be authorized to conduct the negotiations from the Moldovan side.
The newspaper presumes the Russian financial assistance should help the Moldovan non-communist government make both ends meet in the conditions of a huge budget deficit. Kommersant mentioned a deficit figure of 6 billion lei, whereas the Moldovan Government recently made public a deficit of only 2.5 billion lei in 1H2009.
