CHISINAU, January 24. /TASS/. Moldova’s President Igor Dodon said Tuesday the future of the breakaway region of Transnistria should be determined at a nationwide referendum.
"I think that the president, the parliament and the government should have no differences on the Transnistrian settlement. We need to find a political solution that should be determined in a nationwide referendum," the president told reporters on Tuesday evening.
He suggested that the government and the parliament should "create a single platform to achieve the main result - the reunification of the country."
The president added that on the first days of his presidency he met with the leader of the self-proclaimed republic of Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, and achieved certain practical goals, including the launch of the Joint Control Commission to oversee the peacekeeping operation.
He dismissed local media reports that said he had recognized Transnistria’s six-billion-dollar gas debt to Russia.
"From the legal point of view, it is a private debt of the Moldovagaz company," he said. "At the same time (Russia’s) Gazprom is the biggest shareholder of the Moldovagaz, with a 50-percent stake in this enterprise. We will solve this matter, simultaneously with the political settlement of the Transnistrian conflict."
Dodon added that he had discussed gas discounts for Moldova during his recent visit to Moscow.
"We will get a cut in the gas tariffs. I discussed this matter with Alexei Miller. Maybe not under the present government, but the president’s mandate is longer than the mandate of the parliament and the government," he said.