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CHISINAU, Moldova, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- On Feb. 7 a Moldovan-U.S. task force met for the first time to help Moldova take preparatory steps for joining NATO. The effort follows the Aug. 2005 decision by NATO to sign an initial joint partnership Action Plan with Moldova in early 2006 as a first affiliate step towards eventualy NATO membership. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin first visited NATO headquarters in June 2005 to discuss Moldova's participation in an Individual Partnership Action Plan. Moldpress news agency reported that Moldovan Defense Minister Valeriu Plesca said forming a relationship with NATO was important for his impoverished...

Gagauz human rights activist, Head of the Independent Human Rights and Informational Analytic Center Ivan Burgudji commented on the actions of Moldavian President Vladimir Voronin undertaken because Moldavia did not want to pay for the Russian gas at the international tariffs, reports a REGNUM correspondent. “I as a Moldavian citizen am ashamed for actions and statements made by Mr.Voronin towards Russia on gas issue. To my mind, his actions are worse than actions of an illiterate shepherd. How can he state that the gas price of $160 proposed by Russia is not market price, while it is clear to any...

The official Chisinau is in possession of documents indicating that weapons from Transnistria were supplied to Iraq, Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin stated to Russian journalists who are paying a 5-day-long working visit to this republic on the Moldovan leadership's invitation. "We have sent to Russia a file with documents on the directions of arms exports from Transnistria. According to the data available with us, 13 Transnistrian industrial enterprises manufacture armaments continuously. We have a document from the Presidential Office of Saddam Hussein's certifying that weapons from Transnistria used to be imported to Iraq. Now we are scrutinizing this", Voronin...

MOSCOW. (Sergei Markedonov, an expert of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, for RIA Novosti.) Parliamentary elections are due in Moldova on March 6, 2005. In the wake of the "battle for Ukraine", the export of the "orange revolution" to Moldova tops the political agenda of Europe's poorest nation. Only a month ago, Moldova's leading opposition party, the Christian Democrats (the former People's Front), made orange the color of its election campaign. Moldovan voters can get posters, calendars and photos featuring Yuri Roshka, the leader of the Christian-Democratic People's Party, with Viktor Yushchenko. Both Yuri Roshka and his close...

CHISINAU, MOLDOVA—At the checkpoint where my car is stopped, it is pretty clear from those in attendance—in assorted military garb or the ill-fitting suits that remain the uniform of the lower ranks of the successor organizations to the KGB—that there is a list inside the guardhouse with my name on it. So I will not, after all, be visiting Transnistria, the region of the former Soviet republic of Moldova that saw the worst violence in the breakup of the USSR and remains under the control of a local strongman, Igor Smirnov, who maintains his Stalinist grip thanks to an extensive...