Moldova's Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebrian and the US ambassador in Chisinau discussed the situation around breakaway Transnistria, focusing on Moldova's recently adopted measures against separatism, the Moldovan Bureau for Reintegration of the Cabinet of Ministers said on Saturday
CHISINAU (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th February, 2023) Moldova's Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebrian and the US ambassador in Chisinau discussed the situation around breakaway Transnistria, focusing on Moldova's recently adopted measures against separatism, the Moldovan Bureau for Reintegration of the Cabinet of Ministers said on Saturday.
On Thursday, the Moldovan parliament introduced criminal liability for incitement to actions damaging the territorial integrity. The foreign ministry of the breakaway republic of Transnistria issued a statement, calling the legislative reform a threat to the Transnistrian settlement.
"Deputy Prime Minister Serebrian discussed with US Ambassador to Moldova Kent Logsdon the current situation in the region in the context of the existing security architecture. Regarding the latest amendments to the criminal code, it was stated that they would not have an impact on the negotiation process," the statement read.
Under the new amendments, incitement to actions against Moldova's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity will be a criminal offense, and such crimes may be punishable by up to 12 years in prison.
Mainly Russian-speaking Transnistria has been seeking to secede from Moldova since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1992, Transnistria became a territory de facto not controlled by Chisinau following a two-year military conflict.
In 2005, the "5+2" negotiations on the Transnistrian settlement process began, involving Moldova and Transnistria, as the two sides of the conflict, Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe as mediators, with the European Union and the United States acting as observers. The initiative was stalled in 2019, when the last round of discussions took place in Bratislava from October 9-10, and has not been revived since.
