Peter's Moldova Page

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Moldova: Peace Corps Moldova : Web Links for Moldova RPCVs: Peter's Moldova Page

By Admin1 (admin) on Wednesday, July 04, 2001 - 7:21 pm: Edit Post

Peter's Moldova Page



Peter's Moldova Page

Peter's Moldova Page

gif/moldova.small.gif gif/moldova.flag.gif
Quick link to the OMRI daily news digest.

New link (summer 1997): Political Arena .
Note from Peter: Sorry folks but my time for keeping everything (especially the news items) up to date is quite limited. My connection to this site is also severely restricted. Please forgive any lapses with updates and/or information. Please feel free to set up your own web pages - including material from here. If you want the latebreaking news then I suggest you "hotlist" or "bookmark" the OMRI URL - they are paid professionals after all.
pvhp October 1996. Many thanks to Oleg Goldenstein <olejka@scils.rutgers.ed> for the following:

Date: Mon, 02 Dec 1996 10:34:26 -0500

LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuter) - Leftist challenger Petru Lucinschi
has won Moldova's presidential election, Russia's Itar-Tass news
agency reported on Monday.
Tass, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation,
said the result was announced by Moldova's Central Electoral
Commission.
The agency did not give any voting figures but Lucinschi had
been heading for victory over Moldovan President Mircea Snegur
earlier on Monday with more than three-quarters of the vote
counted in the presidential election run-off.
After a bitter campaign in the former Soviet republic that
pitted the president against the government, parliament chairman
Lucinschi led by more than six points with 76 percent of the
ballot counted.
Electoral officials said Lucinschi, who is backed by
communists but presents himself as a social democrat, had 53.14
percent of the vote. Snegur, who has led Moldova since
independence from Moscow in 1991, had 46.86 percent.
Pro-Snegur students gathered in front of the electoral
commission in the centre of the capital Chisinau, vowing to
protest if the president lost. But they numbered only about a
hundred and dispersed by the early hours of the morning.

US Peace Corps Moldova
Currency & exchange rates:
According to a newsgroup posting the exchange rate between US $ and Moldovan lei (singular leu) should be:

4.281 lei = 1.000 $ US (21 Aug 1995)
According to this source the exchange rate between US$ and Moldovan lei recently was:

4.47 lei = 1.00 $ US (13 Sep 1995)
4.50 lei = 1.00 $ US (25 Sep 1995)
4.57 lei = 1.00 $ US (17 Dec 1995)[Official rt. Nat. Bank of Moldova: MDL 456.95 = $100]
4.56 lei = 1.00 $ US (17 Dec 1995)[exchange office buy $$ for 4.56L]
4.62 lei = 1.00 $ US (17 Dec 1995)[exchange office buy sell $$ 4.62L]
4.50 lei = 1.00 $ US (20 Dec 1995)[anonymous source ?]
4.51 - 4.55 lei = 1.00 $ US (1-2 Apr 1996)[personal email from sweden]
4.55 lei = 1.00 $ US ( 3 Aug 1996)[personal email from the USA]
4.50 - 4.62 lei = 1.00 $ US ( 7 Aug 1996)[see note # 1 below]
4.55-4.56 to buy MDL (12 August 1996) [personal email (23 August 1996) from US. Visitor had been to Moldova]
4.60-4.62 to buy USD "
4.58 lei = 1.00 $ US (?) [personal email (17 September 1996) from a US visitor to Moldova]
4.58 lei = 1.00 $ US "as of Oct. 13" [personal email (22 December 1996)]
notes:

* 7 Aug 1996: to buy US dolloars expect to pay 4.60-4.62
to buy Lei get 4.50-4.55 per US $
[Anecdote from Kishinew via personal email from the USA]
*

Anyone with further/more-up-to-date information on exchange rates please e-mail me. Thanks!

This bit in recently from Alexandru Munteanu who informs me that:
There are several ways to get Moldovan Leu Exchange rate on a regular basis: 1)National (Central) Bank of Moldova is publishing its official exchange rate (which is fixing exchange rate, established at daily Interbank Market) at Reuters' screen (page NBM..) 2)Financial Times 3)You can contact the Department of Foreign Relations of the NBM (email:dirext@cni.md). Alexandru added that:
Reuters service includes several facilities like commodoties' prices etc + financial information. Reuters Dealing 2000 is the dealer package to transact in real time (I think Reuters is still the most frequently used dealing and info-software in banks, more than Bloomberg or Telerate). However, the basic (info)package is available in some business schools (free of charge) or you can subscribe on it (but I don't know how much it costs). Thank you Alexandru Munteanu <am319@columbia.edu>!

Baker & McKenzie Country Reports: Moldova - Trade Secrets contains a short paragraph of interest to those wishing to conduct trade with Moldova. There was also an announcement of an International Investment Conference in Chisinau held September 18-20, 1995. There is a company in Toronto Canada which provides parcel delivery service to Russia, Ukraine & Moldova. (Note: recently I had to mail a 9 pound package from the US to Chisinau: Air mail rate: $64.64, surface rate: $25.34.).

STOAS from the Netherlands is working to privatize and extend credit in Moldova. Rakendused 1 explains that computer controlled greenhouses are being installed across parts of Moldova.

Peter Angelo maintains a page on the ex-USSR Nuclear Technology and The World with sections under development on Moldova. Note (before you click) that that page contains a lot of images and is rendered in Netscape enhanced html.

I would like to extend thanks to Andrew <andrew@cyberhighway.net> who has helped by providing information for inclusion here.
Philatelics:
img/mold_stamp.gif img/e.coca_stamp.gif img/seal_stamp.gif img/mold-grape.gif

There is a new web page devoted to Moldovan philatelics. They also have a page on Romanian philatelics.
(hopefully I will have some Numismatics here eventually as well.)
Autography:
img/snegur-sig.gif

Mircea Snegur (PRESEDINTELE REPUBLICII MOLDOVA - 19, ianuarie 1995)
Timezone(s) in Moldova:
A question recently arose concerning the time difference between North America and Moldova.

The quick answer is Moldova is "UTC + 2 hours" or 7 hours ahead of Eastern (US) time.

The long answer: The only cartographic sources I have seen imply that there is only one time zone across Moldova. I know that Chisinau was 7 hours ahead of Eastern US time (At least it was this past summer when I was on EDT and calling a friend in Chisinau - See note below about Daylight Savings Time differences for October.) If you live away from Eastern time (EDT or EST) then add time differences appropriately: e.g west coast time (PST or PDT) is 3 hours behind east coast time, so pacific time to Chisinau time is 7+3 = 10 hours. What does being "10 hours west of Chisinau" mean? Consider this example: if you call Chisinau from Los Angeles at 12:00 noon local time - you will reach your party at 10:00 P.M. their time (kind of late).

If you do not know your time with respect to North America note that this source lists both Poland and Ukraine as being "UTC + 0200 hours" hence one might assume that Moldova too is UTC + 2 hours (that source does not mention Moldova explicity :(. The above mentioned source claims that most European countries do follow daylight savings time from March to October - but Moldova is different (see below)!

Last but not least let me point out Paul Stewart's "Universal" timezone converter that does list Chisinau under Europe/Chisinau (it is in the E's near the top of the list of European cities).


This came in 3 Dec 1995: Oleg Goldenstein <olejka@mariner.rutgers.edu> has just recently informed me of the following:
You are wondering when Moldova goes on and off daylight savings time. Well, it does it NOT the same dates as US does. Moldova goes ON DST at the last Sunday of March ( from 2am -> to 3 am ), and goes OFF at the last Sunday of September ( from 3 am -> to 2am ). Because of that, all the October, the time difference between Moldova ( EET - Eastern Europe time ) and EST was 6 hours, not 7. (Thanks Oleg :-)


This came in 4 Nov 1996: Roger Stevenson just wrote to inform me that:
I thought it might be informative to readers of Peter's Moldova Page that this year Moldova changed from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time on the same day as the United States, that is, the last Sunday in October. I assume this will be the procedure in coming years, although I know some European countries, France for one, is considering abolishing the practice of changing to Daylight Savings Time each year. Thanks for that Roger!
Telephony with Moldova:
By the way the international telephone country code for Moldova is 373. This means, for example, calling from the US requires dialing 1-011-373-(+ local number) (The telephone code should not be confused with the internet code given below.)

From the Former Soviet Union the country code for Moldova is: 8-0422 according to The United Nations in Moldova.

This arrived May 28 21:15:31 EDT 1996, Matthew Ah Hoy Imua Kam writes to inform me that:

I have a question concerning the phone code
that you have written on your home page. I noticed that you put "373"
for your international country code but I think that has changed.
Actually, I was told by the operators that it had changed back to "7"
(the code that was used for USSR). What's terrible about it is that I
think it's harder for me to call Kishinev (city code 4222 [?]) with the
latter country code. (I guess "7" doesn't necessarily mean good luck.)

Can anyone confirm this? Thanks!

This just in (Mon Jun 3 13:05:00 EDT 1996) L. Whicker writes to inform me that:

I direct dial into Moldova all the time with the 373 number (the last
time was in April.) I've had no problems getting in and with a clean
line.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Hmm.. Poftim?
Pekka Hosia <pekka.hosia@kotka.fi> scrieti:

So far all the phones and faxes to Moldova have been succesful without
putting 7 in front of 373, this is the situation now 6.June.1996. I also
was informed that there will be a change and one needs to put 7 first but
373 is still working.

Also, Alec McEwen <amcewen@agt.net> writes a message received Mon Jul 22 00:28:37.29 EDT 1996:

Just to let you know . . . as of yesterday (July 20/96) 373 worked. I
have called Kishinev twice recently. But, you have to add the city
code after the country code, so it for Kishinev it should be 373 2
(local number).

Hope that helps.

It does indeed help Alec. Thank you for your contribution!

This arrived Mon Aug 12 1996. R. Stevenson writes to confirm:
I just wanted to confirm that I was able to phone directly to Chisinau today, 12 August, 1996 using the 373 country code. The call went through fine, although there was a bad echo on the line and I did have to try twice before I got a connection that was stable. If anyone does find out if and when the proposed country code of 7 will go into effect, I would appreciate knowing it. I noticed in the AT&T booklet on international phone codes that they listed 7 as the country code and 0422 the city code for Chisinau. It certainly sounds like a change is planned, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Oleg Goldenstein writes 23 August 1996 to inform us that:
It can be of more interest for those who have contacts in Moldova that effective September many ( if not all ) Kishinev phone numbers, starting with '5' ( Botanica district ) will be changed... Hmm.. keep those updates coming - thanks! (BTW Oleg may also now be reached at olejka@mit.edu in addition to olejka@mariner.rutgers.edu).

Boris Chaikovsky writes 31-OCT-1996 23:02:46.30:

<snip>
many people who have some contacts in those countries. I am navite of
Chisinau myself, and such a card saves me a lot of money when I call Moldova
. Is it possible to make a link to my page or even advertise a banner on
your site with this information?

A link? Yes. Advertising? No.

Boris wrote in November to say that the special telephone rate that he had is now gone. But he is still in business helping people communicate with Moldova.
Radio Moldova:
Short wave afficionados in North America may be interested in this rec.radio.shortwave newsgroup post (from ftp archive) that dates from early October of 1994.
Outside links relevant to Moldova:

By "outside" I mean that the following internet links are neither on this computer, nor are they in Moldova.

These next two pages were among the very first to present information on Moldova to the World Wide Web:

* The original Moldova Page resides on a computer in Montreal Canada and is maintained by Tavi Ureche.
* The original Chisinau Page is on Tavi Ureche's computer in Montreal Canada (and has a nice picture on it).

Another early page on the Web, though somewhat dry and analytical, was provided by the US Central Intelligence agency:

* CIA worldfactbook page on Moldova

A leading source of news from Moldova on the internet is:

* The Open Media Research Institute is the last vestige of Radio Free Europe and provides news coverage of the F.S.U. & Eastern Europe, from headquarters in Prague Czech Republic. Their daily digest is is available right here. More informatin on OMRI as an information source is listed below.

Lydia Spataru maintains a web site with items of contemporary political interest at:

* http://www.creol.ucf.edu/~eel/moldova/

A Romanian foundation (?) gathering info on Moldova:

* Soros Foundation - Moldova (LEVEL 3)
* UN Report on Moldova, and the World Health Organization Liaison office in Chisinau
* Asociatia Supermaratonului din Moldova
* First Columbia Graduate from Moldova
* Inf-HTML: Moldova Team OS/2
* This Moldova Page has a link to a Who is who in Moldova page
* Moldovan Links and another fine page from Bucknell.
* Kishinev Medical Inst.; Pharmaceutical Faculty (page in UK).
* Who's who in Moldova (U Kansas USA)
* USAID Country Profile: Moldova
* East View Publications, Inc. Home Page
* ESATT Info
* Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Page discusses Moldova, also available in Japanese and Russian.

History:
Tavi's Ureche's history page (in Canada).

There is a discussion of 14th century Wallachia Major (Valahia) and Wallachia Minor (Moldova) at a Romanian web server (there is heavy emphasis on the common heritage of Romania and Moldova at these pages). Mircea cel Batran, voivode, prince of Valahia (1386-1418) was a leader of the time. Followed by Stefan cel Mare voivode, prince of Moldova (1457-1504) (a page that includes a rather nice old map.) Alexandru Ioan Cuza was prince of the United Principalities, Valahia and Moldova from 1859 til 1866.

The Middlebury College page on Eastern Europe includes historical accounts of the founding of cities such as Chisinau, as well as the country itself and some institutions therein.
Sports:

* keep up with latest thanks to kbutler in Canada
* Moldova, 1. Level (futbol, soccer).
* Olympic Training for Orlando 1996. (this pages feature pictures in HTML Tables: use a table-capable web-browser).

Music:
Sta's Homepage offers sales of this accordian/keyboard-ist's latest CD.

The Ensemble from Academy of Music in Chisinau tours Florida USA (this pages feature pictures in HTML Tables: use a table-capable web-browser).
Outside links relevant to travel to & within Moldova:
Travellers to Moldova from the United States require a visa stamp in their passport. Apply to the embassy:

* The Moldovan Embassador to the USA is:
o

The Honorable Nicolae Tau (Ambassador)
Mr. Lurie Leanca (Minister Counselor/Deputy Chief of Mission)
The Embassy address is:
o

Embassy of the Republic of Moldova
1511 K Street NW, Suites 329 & 333
Washington, D.C. 20005 USA
(old) telephone (202) 783-3012
(old) Fax: (202) 783-3342
(new Dec 1996) telephone (202) 667-1130
(new Dec 1996) Fax: (202) 667-1204
(old) e-mail: doinita@aol.com
note: I was recently (April 1996) informed that that e-mail account "does not exist". If anyone out there has more information please let me know.

Mystery solved! Konstantin Kifa informs me (26 April 1996) that the new email address for the Embassy to the USA is:
e-mail: 103714.2137@CompuServe.com
Thanks to Joshua S. Lung <arflng@cc.nccu.edu.tw> for the new telephone and FAX numbers (22 Dec 1996).
* Info on The Moldovan embassy to the USA (The info page is supplied by a company in Washington, DC USA).
* Better info on the Moldovan embassy to the USA is supplied by the Russian-American chamber of commerce
* USEFUL CONTACTS IN MOLDOVA is a relative newcomer but does live up to its <TITLE> as it provides a great many names & addresses within Moldova and Washington DC USA. This page is brought to you by BISNIS Online - Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States - from the US Commerce department.

BISNIS Online also has a Summary page on Moldova, a summary of current US agreements with Moldova, and a searchable US embassy Cable Page. From here you may ask their database about "moldova", or you may form a custom query (such as "moldova AND business") in the form below:

* Dr. Pyotr Johannevich van de Waal-Palms portal page to Russia and the C.I.S.

this just in 17 May 1996: someone calling themself "American Bank USA" (mail received from mail.eskimo.com has informed me that:

We arepciate the link on your web pages. However all the information on
these pages is free and there is no high charge as you indicate

"American Bank USA" also included a URL: Palms' Start Page

Travel and tourism pages:

* City.net has a small page on Moldova (mostly links to other sites).
* TravNet! Moldova Menu is an initial attempt to provide traveller's info on various countries. So far they do not have a lot of information - please contribute.
* The Rec.travel library page on Moldova is small too, but there is room for growth there.
* This page appears to be a collection of various train travel reports from around the world (mostly Europe). The parts pertaining to Moldova are right here. European rail fans might also be interested in the page that lists stations (from Germany). Perhaps the technical specs as listed from Italy would be more to your taste.
* TravelWorld® About Moldova
* Dana Durkee's Moldova Story
* The INFOHUB Moldova Travel Guide is fairly new (October 1996) and shows promise.

Language resources

* Romanian for travellers
* "mo" is the internet's two-letter denotation of the "Moldavian" language according to ISO-639.

Other pages/resources concerning Moldova & vicinity:

* Here is a report on Moldovan journalism
* Anthony Villasenor's page on Moldovan internet contacts is short but holds promise...
* The Romanian (little bit Moldovan) newsgroup soc.culture.romanian

* The Civic education project is a privately endowed program for sending Western & North American scholars to teach and participate in outreach programs in Eastern Europe/CIS. While Moldova is not presently on their list (Ukraine & Romania are) the list has been growing rapidly in recent years.
* The US Agency for International Development has a page outlining the Rule of Law Grants Program available for Moldova!
* There is a page on Russian & E. European Studies Internet Resources at the University of Pittsburgh (USA). Not much specifically addresses Moldova but there are some interesting hyper-links there.
* The Kharkov Ukraine newspaper homepage might be a source of relevant news (unfortunately when I learned of this URL the server was not up & running!)
* Moldova Network (Office of Research Services; University of Tennessee; Knoxville, TN USA).
* In New York City there is a:
o

Romanian Cultural Center
200 East 38th Street
New York, NY (zip-code?)
telephone (212) 687-0181
e-mail: roculture@aol.com
They organize various special events around the city.

* Flags of Moldova, as well as the Gagauz/Gagauzia, and Dniestr regions. Another flag page.
* The Chernivtsi Region of Southwest Ukraine (pictures in Tables: table-capable browser such as Netscape recommended).
* Olga Shoronga offers Bioenergetical treatment
* Ady Kazaku has started a Romanian-centered internet service business (by the way: if you visit his pages be sure to use a <Table> aware web-browser).
Here is what he had to say about this page:

Just visited your page on Moldova. Well, good work, although perhaps a little bi
t of order
would be good. One can easily get lost in all the information presented.

*

Outside links that are actually in Moldova:

* new! The United Nations in Moldova special thanks to Bob Hill <rhill@bellatlantic.net> for informing me of this site 22 Dec 1996 new!
* A Moldovan ftp site (193.226.3.2)
(Note that ".md" is the 2 letter country code for Moldovan nodes on the internet. ".mda" is the 3 letter code and "498" is supposed to be the numeric code. As mentioned above "mo" denotes the "Moldavian" language according to ISO-639. )
* This in Fall 1995:

From: <paul_gorodyansky@corp.dialog.com> "Paul Gorodyansky"
Time: 29 November 1995 17:50:29.50
Subj: Literature files in Moldova

Hello !

I found today GREAT, Super Large collection of Literature files
in Moldova - in several languages used in Moldova:
ftp://sympad.cri.md:/pub/etext/
(sub-directories /orig and /trans, and then sub-directories
/ro /ru /en /ui in each of them for corresponding language).

But it is an EXTREMELY slow link.

(when I tried sympad.cri.md=193.226.3.22 gave no response at all - pvhp)

The collection is REALLY GREAT - it's the largest on WWW.

They have full index of their literature files in sympad.arj file at:
ftp://sympad.cri.md/pub/

This .arj file contains sympad.idx in DOS Cyrillic Alternative coding.

N.B. They use sometimes strange archive program that creates .ha
files. Archive program is in KIAE Relcom archive:
www.kiae.su:8090/___[Kiarchive_root_directory]/msdos/arcers/ha0999.exe

Regards,
Paul

Thanks Paul :-) Those URLs are:

http://www.kiae.su:8090/Contents.html (if you have KIO8 Cyrillic fonts)
"Relcom ON-LINE" direct users' page (if you have KIO8 Cyrillic fonts)
http://www.kiae.su:8090/EContents.html (English)
"Relcom ON-LINE" direct users' page (English)
http://www.kiae.su:8081/Contents.html (MS-DOS cyrillics "alternative" encoding)
http://www.kiae.su:8080/Contents.html(MS Windows' cyrillics code page 1251)

Also see Andrey A. Chernov's Cyrillic font reference in Moscow at KOI8-R References.

Oleg Goldenstein <olejka@mariner.rutgers.edu> recently (3 Dec 1995) informed me that until SYMPAD.CRI.MD came into existance in the second half of August 1995 that MDEARN.CRI.MD was the only internet service provider in the country. In Oleg's opinion SYMPAD really seems to have a more extensive collection of files than MDEARN. Please note that both computers are run by the same organization however. The provider is CRI - Centrul Republican de Informatica/Republican Center of Informatics. The only difference is that these servers have two different guys in the positions of system administrator. (Thanks Oleg :-)

Note: as of January 1996 this web server (w4.lns.cornell.edu) has registered 3 "hits" from "mdearn.cri.md" - so they have a web-browser there as well!

As of December 1996 sympad has a web server as well!

http://www.cri.md/

Be sure to visit their Moldovan web servers page too!

* State University of Moldova
* Academy of Sciences of Moldova
* Relsoft Moldova

The ESATT - Network Infrastructure surver for Moldova is a page on a Romanian server - but interesting nonetheless. There is additional information on ESATT - Usergroup summary for Moldova from a server in Poland. Status Report - Moldova (Republic of) tells about possible TCP/IP connection to Chisinau (page in Netherlands)
Local copies of:
These are files here on w4.lns.cornell.edu. Since your are reading this page I presume your connection to this machine is relatively quick and you might want to check out the local copies of the following files. However, since I do not maintain these files you might be interested in the links to the originals since they are more likely to be updated.

* The Moldova Link Page (original from Canada)
* Some Moldovan history (original from Canada)
* Romanian information servers (original in Bucharest)
* A report on recent train travel in and near Moldova (original page from Britain)
* Recent anonymous exchange-rate/tourism story
* There are links to maps at the end of this document.

Some recent news tidbits:
please note: this is NOT a comprehensive list of news from Moldova nor even complete OMRI coverage of that country. I have simply taken a small sample of news stories that I personally find interesting from the newsgroup soc.culture.romanian and from the OMRI daily digest
On the internet much of the news concerning Moldova comes courtesy of The Open Media Research Institute (OMRI) a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.

For more information on OMRI publications,
please write to: info@omri.cz

To subscribe to the full Daily Digest of the Open Media Research Institute
send an e-mail message

To: LISTSERV@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU

with the text:

subscribe omri-l yourfirstname yourlastname

Direct WWW access is also available from OMRI at http://www.omri.cz/Publications/Digests/DDNew.html

Some stories below were reprinted by Mihai G. Sirbu in the soc.culture.romanian newsgroup with the permission of the OMRI. The other stories were picked up directly from the Daily Digest and are re-printed here with permission:

This material was reprinted with permission of the Open
Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with
research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.

Well the time has finally come when I must organize this information a little bit better. In order to make this page a little smaller (and easier to load on microcomputers via modem) I will be splitting things up a bit. I will retain the news I have gathered from roughly the last quarter year here on this page, but in order to see older material you must follow links to the appropriate place:

1. News from Moldova August -> September 1995
2. News from Moldova October -> December 1995
3. News from Moldova January -> March 1996

OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 11,
15 January 1996

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT PREPARED TO RESUME DNIESTER TALKS. Mircea Snegur on 15 January called for the resumption of the monthly meeting of all parties involved in the settlement of the Dniester conflict, BASA-press and Infotag reported. Snegur made the remark in a conversation with Russia's newly-appointed special envoy to the negotiations, Yurii Karlov. Talks between Chisinau and Tiraspol were suspended following an unsuccessful summit meeting in mid-September between Snegur and the president of the self-proclaimed Dniester republic, Igor Smirnov. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 19,
26 January 1996

OSCE CHAIRMAN IN ROMANIA. Flavio Cotti, chairman in office of the OSCE, arrived in Romania on 25 January, Radio Bucharest reported. Cotti met with Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu to discuss, among other things, the situation in Bosnia, the Republic of Moldova, and Chechnya. The Romanian side asked the OSCE to step up its involvement in the Moldovan-Dniester conflict and to intercede in favor of the release of Ilie Ilascu and his colleagues from a Tiraspol jail. The so-called "Ilascu group" is being detained by Dniester authorities for alleged terrorist acts. Cotti, who is also foreign minister of Switzerland, praised diplomatic contacts between the two countries and noted that bilateral economic relations were expanding. Cotti the same day also met with President Ion Iliescu. -- Dan Ionescu

MOLDOVA TO TAKE ACTIVE PART IN NATO'S PFP PROGRAM. Moldova will participate in 85-90% of projects within the Partnership for Peace program in 1996, a spokesman for the Moldovan armed forces told journalists in Brussels on 25 January . Infotag quoted him as saying that Moldova's participation in the program is limited by financial possibilities and will be restricted to sending groups of observers. He noted that NATO "understands and respects the neutrality of Moldova, which, according to its constitution, cannot join any military-political blocs." But he did not exclude future Moldovan participation in NATO military exercises. Moldova plans to host this year a PfP international seminar on military medicine. -- Matyas Szabo
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 29,
9 February 1996

MOLDOVAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON RUSSIAN TROOPS WITHDRAWAL. Mihai Popov, speaking at a press conference on 8 February, said "now that Russia has entered the Council of Europe, it is easier for us to negotiate the Russian troop withdrawal from Moldova," BASA-press reported. He added that Moldova supported Russia's membership in the CE on the condition that the Russian State Duma ratifies the evacuation agreement within six months. He proposed setting up a special commission to report periodically to the parliament on the implementation of the many bilateral agreements with Russia that Moscow has not yet implemented. Popov confirmed Chisinau's refusal to transform some Russian military subdivisions in the Dniester region into peacekeeping forces. -- Matyas Szabo
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 39,
23 February 1996

RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER LOSES COURT CASE IN TIRASPOL. Pavel Grachev has lost a court case to Col. Mikhail Bergman, former commander of the Tiraspol military garrison, Moldovan and Russian agencies reported on 21 February. The military tribunal of the Russian units stationed in Tiraspol ruled that Grachev's October 1995 order to dismiss Bergman was illegal. It decided that Bergman should be reinstated in his post and that Grachev should pay some 19 million rubles ($4,100) to cover Bergman's expenses and in compensation for "moral prejudice." Grachev's lawyer said he would appeal the decision at the Moscow military tribunal. Bergman, who was one of the closest associates of former 14th Russian Army commander Gen. Aleksandr Lebed, claimed his dismissal was an act of "political revenge." -- Matyas Szabo
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 44,
1 March 1996

EU-MOLDOVA COOPERATION COMMITTEE CONVENES IN CHI-SINAU. The EU-Moldova Joint Cooperation Committee on 29 February met for the first time, Moldovan agencies reported. Moldovan Prime Minister Andrei Sangheli said the committee was set up to implement the first agreements signed by Moldova and the EU. He expressed gratitude to the EU for its support in the peaceful settlement of the Dniester conflict and in efforts to withdraw Russian troops from Moldovan territory. Without EU's humanitarian assistance and preferential credits, "Moldova may experience social unrest," he added. -- Matyas Szabo
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 54,
15 March 1996

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT DEMANDS DEFENSE MINISTER'S RESIGNATION. Mircea Snegur is demanding Defense Minister Pavel Creanga's resignation, BASA-press and international agencies reported on 14 March. The presidential office released a statement saying Creanga had failed to "take sufficient measures to ensure the integrity of the National Army's assets and efficient use of budget funds." Creanga said the accusations were "groundless" and that the demand for his resignation was illegal and prompted by his refusal to allow political interference in the army. Under Moldovan law, a minister can be dismissed only by the prime minister. Observers note that Premier Andrei Sangheli, a political rival of Snegur, is unlikely to fire Creanga. -- Michael Shafir
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 62,
27 March 1996

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT WARNS OF MASSIVE SOCIAL UNREST. Mircea Snegur, meeting with leaders of the Moldovan National Trade Union Federation on 26 March, said that if the government fails to undertake urgent measures to resolve outstanding social problems, Moldova will likely suffer massive social unrest, Moldovan agencies reported. Snegur said that only 31% of the 26,400 registered unemployed receive unemployment benefits. Real wages are decreasing, and wage arrears now total 2.6 billion lei ($572 million). Snegur had issued a decree in early February urging the government to pay pension, wage, and other arrears by 31 March. Meanwhile, trade union leader Ion Godonoga said the government has failed to honor its agreements with the trade unions. -- Matyas Szabo
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 65,
1 April 1996

U.S. TO HELP MOLDOVA SOLVE DNIESTER CONFLICT. A high-ranking U.S. diplomat on 31 March said that the U.S. is ready to help Moldova settle its dispute with Dniester separatists, Reuters reported. Ambassador Joseph Presel, coordinator for regional affairs in charge of the newly independent states, was quoted as saying that the Dniester issue could be raised at the U.S.-Russian summit in Moscow next month. But he added that it was unlikely that "any serious progress" could take place before the Russian presidential elections. Presel is currently on a three-day visit to Moldova, where he met with Moldovan President Mircea Snegur and other senior officials. He is expected to visit the Dniester region on 1 April. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 81,
24 April 1996

ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN MOLDOVA. Teodor Melescanu, at the start of an official visit to the Republic of Moldova, discussed bilateral relations with Moldovan President Mircea Snegur, Prime Minister Andrei Sangheli, Parliamentary Chairman Petru Lucinschi, and Foreign Minister Mihai Popov, Radio Bucharest reported on 23 April. Melescanu told Radio Bucharest that the long-delayed bilateral basic treaty was included on their agenda. He is scheduled today to attend a meeting of a Romanian-Moldovan interdepartmental commission that is expected to focus on boosting bilateral economic and cultural cooperation. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 82,
25 April 1996

MOLDOVAN, DNIESTER PRESIDENTS MEET. Moldovan President Mircea Snegur on 24 April met in Chisinau with the president of the self-proclaimed "Dniester republic," Igor Smirnov, BASA-press and Infotag reported. The meeting was also attended by Moldovan Premier Andrei Sangheli, Parliamentary Chairman Petru Lucinschi, Dniester Supreme Soviet Chairman Grigorii Marakutsa, as well as OSCE, Russian, and Ukrainian mediators in the Dniester conflict. The participants discussed the future status of the Dniester region but failed to agree on issues such as closer cooperation in the banking and financial sector. The next round of talks between senior officials from Moldova and the breakaway Dniester region has been scheduled for 11 May in Tiraspol. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 83,
26 April 1996

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT URGES PARLIAMENT TO DISMISS CABINET. Mircea Snegur has called on the parliament to sack the government because of alleged incompetence and involvement in corruption, Reuters reported on 25 April. The agency quoted Snegur as saying that people "want to know if elected representatives can sack those unable to carry out their duties and nominate others able to cope with difficulties and get the country out of the abyss of poverty." Snegur said the government was responsible for growing unemployment as well as wage and pension arrears, which exceeded $70 million by mid-April. Snegur's appeal came after he unsuccessfully attempted to sack Defense Minister Pavel Creanga on corruption charges in mid-March, without consulting Andrei Sangheli's government. The Constitutional Court later reinstated Creanga. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 84,
29 April 1996

MOLDOVAN, ROMANIAN PRESIDENTS MEET. Moldovan President Mircea Snegur on 26 April in Bucharest met with his Romanian counterpart, Ion Iliescu, Radio Bucharest reported. They discussed bilateral cooperation and mutual support. Snegur, who was attending the Business Forum of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation group, had addressed the conference with a plea for more political and economic stability, as well as military security in the region. The four-day conference, which was attended by more than 2,000 politicians and business people, closed on 28 April. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 87,
3 May 1996

POLL ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES IN MOLDOVA. Some 70% of respondents in a recent poll described the political and social situation in their country as "bad" and "very bad," Moldovan news agencies reported on 30 April. The results also showed that 82% of those questioned were dissatisfied with the level of democracy in Moldova, 67% with the activity of the parliament, 61% with the cabinet's performance, and 49% with the presidential office. According to 25% of those polled, the old, communist system lives on in Moldova under new names. The poll was conducted by the independent Opinia agency jointly with the Chisinau branch of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 142,
24 July 1996

UNEMPLOYMENT IN MOLDOVA. According to data released by the Moldovan State Statistics Department, 26,100 persons were officially registered as unemployed, two thirds of whom were women, Infotag reported on 23 July. About 28% of those unemployed receive unemployment benefits averaging 68 lei (about $15.50) per month. In addition, 124,000 persons were on forced leave, the average duration of which is 39 days. -- Michael Shafir
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 143,
25 July 1996

U.S. DROPS ARMS RESTRICTIONS FOR 5 REGIONAL STATES.

According to a State Department announcement on 24 July, the

United States has ended restrictions on arms trade with Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. These countries have been removed from the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) proscribed list. This means that the U.S. will no longer automatically deny licenses for the export or import of military equipment or services to these nations. -- Doug Clarke

RUSSIAN GENERAL IN MOLDOVA DENIES RUMORS. The commander of the Dniester-based Russian troops, Gen. Valerii Yevnevich, denied rumors in the Chisinau media that he has been dismissed from his post, BASA-Press reported on 24 July. Yevnevich said rumors that he was appointed Russian military attache in China were untrue. He said he had done nothing to warrant being dismissed. -- Michael Shafir

MOLDOVAN ENERGY CRISIS POSTPONED. Following a visit to Moscow, Prime Minister Andrei Sangheli told Moldova suverana that he reached an agreement to postpone for seven years the repayment of the $140 million Moldovan debt to Russia for fuel delivery arrears in 1994-1995. Sangheli said that energy used in 1996, however, must be paid for. He said the Dniester region's debts were separated from Chisinau's, and that cooperation was underway with Ukraine and Russia to restore Moldovan membership into the Common Energy System, BASA-Press reported on 23 July. Sangheli met in Crimea with Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma to discuss ensuring normal coal deliveries to Moldova for the winter, as well as other issues of cooperation, Infotag reported on 24 July. -- Michael Shafir
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 144,
26 July 1996

MOLDOVAN PREMIER MEETS WITH KUCHMA. Andrei Sangheli met with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on 24 July in Foros, a resort in Crimea, BASA-press reported the following day. The two discussed economic cooperation, including cooperation in the energy sector; the implementation of the bilateral free-trade agreement; the mutual recognition of property rights; and the transit of Moldovan goods through Ukrainian territory. The sides reportedly agreed upon the volume and the conditions of deliveries of Ukrainian coal, but no precise data were released on the amount of coal the Moldova plans to import this fall or next spring. According to official statistics, Moldova imported some 2 million tons of Ukrainian coal in 1995. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 146,
30 July 1996

MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT URGES SIGNING OF DNIESTER MEMORANDUM. The parliament on 29 July appealed to President Mircea Snegur to sign the memorandum on the basic principles of normalizing relations between the Republic of Moldova and its breakaway Dniester region. The appeal pointed to the joint declaration signed in January by Snegur, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and the Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on the reaching a political settlement to the Dniester conflict as soon as possible. Two deadlines for signing the agreement have already been missed. In early July, Snegur suggested that the signing should be postponed until after the Moldovan presidential election, scheduled for 17 November. The parliament criticized him for failing "to speed up the [peace] process" in the region. -- Dan Ionescu
OMRI Daily Digest Vol. 2, No. 148,
1 August 1996

MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT CHAIRMAN MEETS COMMUNISTS. Petru Lucinschi on 31 July met with the leadership of the Communist Party of Moldova (PCM), BASA-press reported. PCM Chairman Vladimir Voronin said after the meeting that Lucinschi was clearly seeking the Communists' support in the run-up to the presidential elections, though he did not say as much. Voronin added that Lucinschi, who was a Central Committee Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in its final days, should first clarify his own "contribution to the collapse of the party and, implicitly, of the Soviet Union" before counting on the PCM's support. -- Dan Ionescu
Moldovan Cartography (maps):

* The University of Texas GIF format (155 kilobytes) map.
* A local copy of a similar map (GIF 155 kbytes)
* Timzone map of the world (JPEG 331 kbytes)

For those of you with disk space to burn here are sections of the MapLink© Ukraine map that feature Moldova in

* TIFF format (1.6 Megabytes)
* GIF format (0.4 Megabytes)

The 1:1,200,000 map is available from:
MapLink
25 E. Mason
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone: (805) 965-4402
FAX: (805) 962-0884

La revedere!
I am

Peter Prymmer
Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

pvhp@lns62.lns.cornell.edu
This page: http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/~pvhp/Moldova.html



Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Moldova

PCOL3171
59

.

By linda (belf-cache-1.server.ntli.net - 62.254.32.4) on Wednesday, January 05, 2005 - 4:05 am: Edit Post

i am desperate for the phone number for tiraspol jail, could you please help me with this


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: