CHISINAU, January 9. /TASS/. Transnistria plans to invigorate its dialogue with the CIS countries following Chisinau’s decision to break such ties, Vadim Krasnoselsky, president of the unrecognized republic of Transnistria, told TASS.

"Transnistria cannot make Chisinau change its erroneous policy and wants to establish direct ties with CIS structures. We hope for reciprocal steps. If we don’t define the special format of our relations with the CIS, Moldova’s withdrawal from the existing agreements is likely to do a lot of harm to Transnistria in many areas. We keep on drawing the attention of Russian officials to this reality," he said.

He slammed the current Moldovan government’s choice as groundless, saying that the negative effects of Moldova’s denunciation of CIS agreements will have a lasting impact on the Moldovan population for years to come.

Moldova’s attitude toward the CIS began to sour in 2020 when President Maia Sandu took office and her Party of Action and Solidarity took control of the Moldovan government in 2021. Notably, Sandu has not attended any CIS summits during her tenure. Chisinau only ramped up its anti-CIS rhetoric last year when Foreign Minister Nicolae Popescu announced the formal denunciation of a number of CIS agreements that he described as no longer relevant.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has slammed Chisinau’s policy as two-faced. She noted how the Moldovan authorities are loudly proclaiming their intentions to withdraw from the CIS, yet are in no hurry to give up the social and economic advantages their country accrues from its membership in the CIS.