On the eve of Moldova’s Constitution Day, celebrated on July 29, President Igor Dodon, who periodically declares that he was constitutionally elected to this position by the majority of citizens with the right to vote, convened a large group of authorities from the breakaway Transnistria region at his residence in Condrița, Chișinău, to discuss the prospects of the Chișinău-Tiraspol collaboration. 

The international community never recognized the breakaway Transnistria region as a state but as an indispensable part of Moldova. On the eve of Moldova’s Constitution Day, however, Vladimir Krasnoselski felt like a real head of state. His counterpart invited him to a dialogue. He felt like a President, just as Dodon addressed him – “president of Transnistria”.

After that meeting, the press wrote that Dodon could obtain some voters from the left bank of the Nistru River by treating Krasnoselski with joviality. Nothing out of the ordinary. We have a president for whom the number of votes matters more than the quality of the votes.

In 1992, I met Maria Lupașcu, the widow of Filip Lupașcu, the great hero of the 1992 War of Independence. We met at Filip’s funerals. She was young and beautiful then, and already a widow with two sons, one of whom was only a few months old, and an old and sick mother to take care of.

In the meantime, we met several times at the cemetery, at Filip’s grave, or simply in the street, by chance. Just as we haven’t seen each other in a long time because of the pandemic, I intended to call Maria and to talk about the children, about their health, about Filip’s heroism.

After that shameful meeting in Condrița between the leaders in Chișinău and the leaders of the separatist regime in Tiraspol, I did not have the courage to call her. 

What can I say to a woman who has been a widow for 28 years and who raised her sons alone? 

Should I admit, once again, that Filip’s death, as well as the deaths of other young fighters on the Nistru River, was in vain? Numerous governments undervalued the sacrifices of those who were killed by the separatists, who gave their lives for the Independence of this state.

It so happened that Krasnoselski’s visit to Condrița and Dodon’s epic blunder occurred on the eve of ZdG’s birthday. 

For 16 years, this newspaper, founded exclusively by journalists, has been writing about the endless conflict on the Nistru River, about the Russian ammunition stored in Cobasna, about the Romanian schools, mocked by separatists, about farmers who cannot get to their fields to gather the harvest, about the so-called justice in Tiraspol.

Only the victims of that regime reacted to our writing. The Moldovan authorities should have intervened firmly in all cases of abuses committed by the self-proclaimed regime in Tiraspol, in relation to the rights of people held hostage on the left bank of the Nistru River. However, the Moldovan authorities did not react.

That the governments in Chișinău neglect the independent press in Moldova is not a novelty. Lack of reaction has become a real impediment for all those who work in the name of truth.

Dozens of readers sent us congratulatory messages on the occasion of ZdG’s anniversary. These are the voices of people who read, respect and trust what ZdG writes. These people told us that they have been reading the newspaper for a lifetime, for 16 years, and they wish the governments read it as well and intervened in accordance with their competence and powers. That’s what ZdG readers think and they’re right.

P.S. A newspaper, no matter how complex, cannot exist without its readers. I would like to thank ZdG readers, who add meaning to our work.