Ghimpu not going to meet with Yushenko

The Moldovan presidential press service has refuted the media stories that Moldova’s Acting President, Parliament Chairman Mihai Ghimpu was allegedly going to hold a meeting with Ukrainian President Victor Yushenko on Monday.

This morning a number of newspapers, in particular Nezavissimaya Gazeta of Russia, wrote that the two leaders were going to announce the start of demarcation works on the Transnistrian segment of the Moldova-Ukraine border. The papers also wrote that after this meeting, Yushenko was going to visit Tiraspol and meet with Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov, and that this very intention allegedly served the reason why Mihai Ghimpu refused to meet with his Ukrainian colleague.

However, Ghimpu’s press service wrote today that the media stories concerned were but a new attempt “to misinform and manipulate”, and that “any speculations on this sensitive topic only bring harm to the residents of both Dniester banks, who continue to suffer from the unresolved Transnistria conflict.”

The Ghimpu’s press service expressed bewilderment that the stories appeared in the press in the context of the last week’s visit paid to Moldova by the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office’s Special Representative, Ambassador Charalampos Christopoulos, who met also with the Transnistrian authorities.