Transnistria is Ready to Hold a New Referendum on Joining Russia

Home / News / Transnistria is Ready to Hold a New Referendum on Joining Russia
Transnistria is ready to hold another referendum on joining the Russian Federation, but with one condition, stated the head of the region Vadim Krasnoselsky in an interview with riafan.ru. He recalled that such a referendum had already been held in 2006, and then 97% of the voters supported the independence of Transnistria and its further accession to the Russian Federation. “I think that if we hold such a referendum again now, the result will not change. We are ready to hold a new referendum. But holding a referendum for the sake of a referendum is not interesting. We need guarantees that its results will be recognized by Russia,” the Tiraspol leader emphasized. He admitted that “this year’s 5+2 meeting did not produce results, explaining that the Moldovan side initially included in the agenda the issues excluding possibility of signing joint documents in particular, the requirement to harmonize the tax systems of Transnistria and Moldova. “This is absolutely unacceptable for us, because over the past years we have developed our own tax system, and it is impossible to change it overnight. It is not clear why in the negotiation process they are using levers that exclude the possibility of fulfilling earlier agreements. Nevertheless, we look forward to continuing the dialogue with Chisinau. We are convinced that there are many questions of economic, cultural, humanitarian nature that need to be addressed. The life of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people depends on these issues. And turning these people into hostages of someone’s political ambitions is unacceptable,” says Krasnoselsky. He doubts that the new government in Moldova will improve its relations with Russia. “I'm a practical man. I need a real result, not words. Maybe someone in Russia believes that Chisinau is determined to improve relations with Moscow. I see it differently. You can say one thing but do another one. To say “I love” does not always mean to love. However, this is a relationship between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova, and Russian politicians need to objectively assess the situation. For my part, I can say that relations between Moldova and Transnistria, after all the political transformations in Chisinau, have only worsened. There is an interesting paradox. That is, it seems that Moldova has become closer to Russia, at least in words. But in fact it became further from us”, said the Transnistrian leader. Point