Voronin and Medvedev confer on bilateral cooperation issues in Sochi

RUSSIA

Moldova’s president Vladimir Voronin discussed regional problems and methods of overcoming the economic crisis with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev at a bilateral meeting in Sochi on Friday.

“Regardless of the political seasons in Russia or in Moldova, our relations are an important factor that unites our countries,” the Russian head state said.

Before the meeting with Medvedev, Vladimir Voronin told the Russian press that the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict in the 5+2 format will be a separate subject for discussions. He also said that at the October summit of the CIS heads of state that will take place in Chisinau Moldova will pass on the CIS presidency to Russia.

This is the third official meeting of the two presidents this year.

Russia denies having delayed settlement of Transnistrian dispute

The attempts to present the Transnistrian issue as the only unsolved problem in the bilateral relations between Moldova and Russia harmed the conflict settlement process, a Kremlin source said before the visit of the Moldovan president to Russia, Mediafax reports on its website, quoting Interfax.

Russia is discontented with the fact that the Moldovans and the Western partners involved in the negotiating process tried to present Moscow as a player of the settlement process so as to blame it later for this halt in the talks and for support to the secessionist authorities, the Kremlin source said.

The Russian authorities denied such actions, reiterating that the resolution of the dispute depends on the agreement between Chisinau and Tiraspo.