President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, I am happy to see you once again.
It is symbolic, of course, that our meeting is taking place on June 22. This is a special day for our countries, a day of memory and sorrow, a day when we remember the Second World War, the Great Patriotic War. It is good that you were here too to take part today in the wreath-laying ceremony [at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall].
Something that will unquestionably always unite our countries is our common struggle against the Nazi invaders. We were part of the same state back then. This is something that will forever remain in our people’s memories, and we need to look after and preserve this memory.
I am pleased to have this opportunity today to see you, to discuss matters with you. I would like to talk about developing our bilateral relations and also about developing our ties with other countries, all the more so as these are difficult times we are going through, economically problematic. We need therefore to look at what we can do to continue developing our trade and economic ties during the crisis.
There are also political problems and regional problems. We have been following the situation in Moldova very attentively and with a lot of concern.
I want to say, of course, that we support the measures Moldova’s leadership is taking to restore constitutional order. This is important for Moldova to develop as an independent and sovereign state providing happiness and prosperity to all who live there.
I am therefore pleased to be able to hold these consultations today.
President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin: Thank you, Mr President. Indeed, June 22 is a day of sorrowful memory for all Moldova. More than 300,000 of our people lost their lives on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, and genocide was carried out in our country against the Moldovan and Jewish peoples.
These events have grown more distant in time, but their memory remains strong among Moldova’s people. We pay a lot of attention to restoring and building memorials, working with Great Patriotic War veterans and helping them in their daily lives. We need to pass on these traditions and educate our young people in the spirit of these examples.
I thank you for the great honour accorded me in having the possibility to be together with you today at the Kremlin wall. This is very significant, because we all know and realise that it was the Russian people who bore the greatest burden during the Great Patriotic War. This is something we remember and value greatly.
Commemoration ceremonies are also taking place in Moldova today, with wreaths laid in memory of the 20 million people who gave their lives on the fronts in the Great Patriotic War.
I am very grateful for the fact that, during these difficult days when attempts were made to destabilise the political situation in our country, Russia was the first and probably the only country to voice its support for the legally elected government.
You declared your personal support while at the Russia-European Union summit in Khabarovsk. This means a great deal to us in terms of strengthening our relations and giving us serious political support at such a critical moment for our country.
We greatly value this and we are very grateful to you for the timely and clear position Russia has taken during the recent events in our country.
I think we should speak things as they are. This was a planned action, an attempt to carry out another ‘colour’ revolution, in our country this time. But I think that our coordinated response and your clear position will probably deter the organisers from planning further such attempts.
Of course we need to put more effort into resolving the social and economic problems in our society. This was not a popular revolution but the action of an organised group of people paid for their efforts, people who wanted to destabilise our country and carry out a coup d’etat.
The situation is back to normal in Moldova now. People are going about their business. The government is working in normal fashion and all the authorities are in their places, doing their jobs. Those who did not want to spend four years in parliament will now go back to the voters, and will try to win their support and trust once more, all the more so after the events that they helped to organise in our country.
Thank you for the opportunity to meet today. I think this will further strengthen the friendship and relations between our countries and help to improve our people’s lives.
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