Expanded Visa Restrictions on Transnistrian Authorities

The United States, together with the EU, is restricting issuance of visas for ten officials of the Transnistria separatist regime in Moldova. These individuals are among those responsible for an ongoing campaign to force the closure of Moldavian language schools in the separatist Transnistrian region of Moldova, a campaign that has recently included the harassment and isolation of children in an orphanage, and steps to impede delivery of food and water for their relief by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and UNICEF. We and our European partners have strongly condemned the Transnistrian leadership for its recent provocative actions.

Unfortunately, these actions are part of a wider pattern of Transnistrian intransigence in both the political settlement talks and in steps to complete Russia’s military withdrawal from Moldova. U.S. and EU concern over this obstructionism led to the February 27, 2003 US/EU visa restrictions imposed on seventeen top members of the Transnistrian regime, which remain in effect. By helping foment the current school crisis, the ten additional members of the self-proclaimed Transnistrian leadership share direct responsibility for impeding progress in negotiations to solve the overall separatist dispute, and will, therefore, be subject to this same restrictive visa policy.

2004/928