Moldovan pro-Russian party makes coalition with Transnistrian formation

The Moldovan pro-Russian sociopolitical movement Ravnopravye [equality of rights], headed by a Chisinau municipal councillor, Valeriy Klimenko, has signed a cooperation agreement with the Transnistrian Party of Patriots (PPT), which envisages support for Ravnopravye during the 2009 parliamentary election.

The chairman of the PPT executive committee, Igor Ivanenko, said that the two parties’ political programmes are very close: political and economic integration of the two post-Soviet states with the Russian Federation, the construction of a social state, and the need to assign the Russian language a special status in Moldova.

Ivanenko said that the PPT will back Ravnopravye at the 2009 parliamentary election in Moldova. In this respect, it will canvass for votes for this formation in Transnistria and will support Transnistrian residents who would want to come on Moldova’s territory to participate in the ballot. The PPT said that it would call other parties from the breakaway region to back the Ravnopravye movement as well.

At the same time, Ivanenko did not hesitate to talk about Moldova and Transnistria as of two independent states. He said that the Moldovan officials should display political will and to officially call on Tiraspol to open polling stations on the right bank of the Dniester, given the high number of Moldovan citizens residing there.

Asked if he recognizes Transnistria’s independence, Valeriy Klimenko avoided a clear-cut answer, saying that he “recognizes the support of citizens from the left bank of the Dneister” and that “it is not ethical” to comment on Ivanenko’s statements.

Klimenko said that he would introduce PPT members on his party’s election lists. Nonetheless, Ivanenko said that the PPT has not yet considered the possibility of having representatives on the election lists of Ravnopravye.