MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. Moldovan President Maia Sandu’s declared support for unification with Romania constitutes grounds for impeachment and criminal charges for high treason, Moldovan opposition politician Ilan Sor said.

"The president is the guarantor of sovereignty and territorial integrity in any state. Maia Sandu’s declaration, if made in any civilized country, would be fraught with high treason criminal charges potentially carrying a punishment of quite a long prison term. Obviously, as long as she is president she will be immune, but we have seen a lot of cases in history when everything changed. Apart from that, her statement is a reason for impeachment," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel.

Earlier, Sandu said that she would vote for Moldova’s unifying with Romania in a referendum, explaining her position by saying that "it is becoming more and more difficult for a small country to survive." She admitted however that Moldova doesn’t have a majority supporting the unification. Moldova’s biggest Party of Socialists demanded a probe be initiated immediately into Sandu’s potential high treason. According to the Party of Communists, Sandu’s statement could be seen as a reason for impeaching her.

Idea of unifying with Romania

A number of political parties in Moldova have been advancing the idea of unification with Romania for decades. They have also been calling for the withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Opinion polls indicated that the idea is supported by nearly 68% of the population in Romania, while only a third of Moldovans approve of such a step.

Following the revolution in Russia, Romania deployed its troops to the Bessarabia province of the former Russian Empire. The Soviet government refused to recognize this annexation and this territory was returned back to the Soviet Union in 1940. Moldova proclaimed independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, politicians in neighboring Romania consider this territory as part of their country and call for unification.

Sandu said earlier that she has a Romanian passport, like hundreds of thousands of Moldovans who opted to obtain Romanian citizenship to be able to freely travel across Europe. Today, however, Moldova itself enjoys a visa-free travel regime with the European Union.