Vremya Novostey: "If Not For the Summit..."
By Pavel Lukyanchenko in Chisinau
Russian Prime Minister to Visit Chisinau
A CIS summit of heads of government is starting in Chisinau today. The meeting is planned to adopt a CIS economic strategy through 2020. Moldova will be assuming CIS chairmanship from 1 January 2009, and this will give even greater significance to the event, said Sergey Lebedev, Head of CIS Executive Committee, at a meeting with the President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin.
After the summit, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Putin will meet with the President of Moldova. The event is very important considering that Mr. Putin will be visiting Chisinau for the first time since his last visit was canceled in November 2003. Mr. Putin was supposed to arrive in Moldova to oversee signing of a memorandum on the Transdnestr conflict settlement, also known as the "Kozak Plan". However, the Moldovan President Voronin withdrew his signature at the last moment under pressure from the West. The Russian services preparing Mr. Putin's visit had already arrived in Chisinau when the trip was cancelled.
Since then, relations between the countries were continuously deteriorating. In the run-up to the 2005 parliamentary elections, the ruling Communist party of Moldova, headed by President Voronin, abandoned the country's pro-Russian orientation in favour of rapprochement with the West. The same year, Chisinau, assisted by the West and Ukraine, imposed an economic blockade over the Transdnestr republic. In the spring of 2006, Moscow banned the import of Moldovan wines and brandies into Russia. The Russian market accounted for 80% of Moldovan exports.
The breach in relations resulted in serious economic losses for Moldova. While in 2005 the industrial production increased by 7%, in 2006 it went down by 4.8%, and further decreased by 2.7% in 2007. In the fall of 2007, Russia lifted its ban on wine imports from Moldova, and it has had a favourable impact on the country's economy. Over the period of January-June 2008, the food and spirits production increased by 11.84%, which boosted the overall production volume by 4%. This spring, the presidents of Moldova and Transnistria met for the first time in seven years, which prompted the commentators to speak of a "thaw" in the relations between Moscow and Chisinau.
The "wine embargo" cast doubt on the prospects of the Moldovan-Russian relations, but recent polls suggest that Moldovans think positively about their improvement, Dmitry Bragish, leader of the Social Democracy Party, told Vremya Novostei. More frequent meetings of the two countries' officials also testify to the normalization of the relations, said Mr. Bragish.
The improvement of bilateral relations is happening to a large extent thanks to Moscow's initiatives, said Valeriy Klimenko, leader of the "Ravnopravie" (Equality) movement. "Moldovan authorities, on the other hand, are only trying to score political points in the run-up to the 2009 parliamentary elections and to demonstrate to the pro-Russian voters that Russia is still an ally. At the same time, they have approved a new higher education concept, which bans Russian language education in many popular specialties, including law and medicine.
The relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol are also very complicated. The Transdnestr conflict settlement has been deadlocked for a long time, according to Dmitry Chubashenko, Chief Editor of the "Moldavskie Vedomosti" newspaper. "Voronin and Smirnov (President of the Transdnestr republic) do not want to reach an agreement. Moscow is unable to have them reconcile; and the West is not interested in a settlement under Russia's patronage," Mr. Chubashenko said. "If not for the CIS summit, Putin would have probably not visited Chisinau," added the expert.
