MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/. Moldova is stepping up pressure on Transnistria under the pretext of the process of its integration into the European Union, the Transnistrian foreign ministry told the Izvestia daily.

"Citing European Union’s norms, but, as a matter of fact, speculating them and using then as a smoke screen for its illegitimate actions, Moldova has dramatically increased economic pressure on Transnistria in recent years," the ministry said.

Thus, Chisinau has imposed customs duties on the commodity bound for Transnistria, is blocking both imports of medicine and equipment for hospitals and exports of products from a range of Transnistrian companies, which tells adversely on the republic’s budget and decreases budget revenues.

Moreover, the ministry doesn’t rule out that more restrictions may follow. "Citing the EU standards, Moldova plans to toughen imports of all types of packaged merchandise, including food, to Transnistria," it said.

According to the ministry, Moldova’s course toward EU integration "has seriously aggravated relations" between the two Dniester banks. "We are forces to consider Moldova’s EU integration process as a permanent source of risks and threats," the ministry stressed.

Earlier, Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky issued a message to the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) informing them about toughening transport and economic blockade of Transnistria, which creates the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe. According to Krasnoselsky, after Maia Sandu was elected Moldova’s president, Chisinau has been ignoring the negotiating process.

Transnistria, a largely Russian-speaking region on the left bank of the Dniester River, broke away from Moldova in September 1990 when radical Moldovan politicians demanded that the republic withdraw from the former Soviet Union and unify with Romania. Its relations with Moldova’s central government in Chisinau have been highly mixed and extremely tense at times ever since then. In 1992, after Chisinau tried to resolve the problem with the use of force, tensions erupted into a bloody armed conflict that claimed the lives of hundreds of people on both sides.

The fratricidal war was stopped after a ceasefire was signed in 1992 and Russian peacekeepers were brought into the conflict area. Negotiations on the conflict’s peace settlement known as the 5+2 format (Moldova, Transnistria, the OSCE, Russia, Ukraine and observers from the United States and the European Union) started after that. Since then, Russian peacekeepers, along with their Transnistrian and Moldovan colleagues, as well as group of military observers from Ukraine have been maintaining peace in the region.

The negotiating process has been stalled in recent year. Transnistria puts the blame for that on Moldova and insists on resuming talks. Moldova, however, says that talks are impossible until the situation in Ukraine is settled.