Visit of Moldovan President Maia Sandu to Gagauzia Autonomous Region

The visit of the president of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu to the autonomous region Gagauzia in the Republic of Moldova was marked on Wednesday by clashes between police and pro-Russian protesters, reports EFE.The clashes took place in the vicinity of the university in the regional capital city, Comrat where groups of people protested against the pro-European president Maia Sandu, adds the Spanish press agency, who quotes information from the local press.Deschide.md related on Wednesday that tens of people were brought in front of the State University in Comrat, where there was going to be the meeting between Maia Sandu and several local elected authorities. According to the quoted source, at a certain moment, the protesters tried to break the police cordon, chant anti-governmental slogans and require Maia Sandu to leave Gagauzia.Sandu, who will run for a new mandate for the presidential elections in October, was planned to meet on Wednesday the representatives of the autonomous region, which accuses the Republic of Moldova of imposing an economic blockade in Gagauzia, which keeps tight connections with Kremlin.The head of Gagauzia, Evghenia Gutul warns Sandu that she will welcomed with protests due to the alleged pressure exerted by Kishinev on the regional authorities.Moreover, Deschide.md writes that among the present ones at the protest at the State University in Comrat there are people associated with the head Evghenia Gutul, including the deputy and one of his advisor.In addition, during the visit she paid to Moscow on Tuesday, Gutul did not exclude the fact that she could have been retained immediately she came back to the Republic of Moldova due to her connections with the pro-Russian party Shor, as the Prosecutors’Office presented allegations against her at the beginning of April, on the basis of an investigation regarding corruption among parties.   Recently, she warned that Gagauzia will declare its independence agaist the Republic of Moldova if the latter tries to get united with Romania and insisted, similarly to the pro-Russian separatist region Transnister in the Republic of Moldova that she will ask for help from Russia if Kishinev decides to send troops in the region.On Tuesday in Moscow, Gutul signed an agreement with the Russian bank Promsviazbank (PSB) which will allow the inhabitants of this region to use the Russian bank cards MIR.‘It is a very important moment for us. Russia saved our people again, and confirmed its statute as a friend and a defender of the Gagauzians’ she stated on this occasion.Gutul remembered her visit in March, when she asked the Russian president Vladimir Putin for preferential tariffs for Gagauzian product exporters, lower prices for the Russian gas and access to the Russian payment system MIR.The Republic of Moldova intends to organize on 20 October simultaneously presidential elections and referendum for integration in the EU, as both Gagauzians and Transniestrians want to stay under Russian influence.The Gagauzians, of Turkish origin and Ortodox religion, speak mostly Russian, reason for which Sandu pleads for the introduction of a compulsory programme for the study of Romanian, the official language in the Republic of Moldova, according to the Constitution, says EFE.One year ago, the Republic of Moldova has toughened penalties against separatism and other conspiracies against the central state in its penal code, a clear warning to the pro-Russian autonomous region, according to EFE. Gagauzia, which briefly existed illegally in 1990 as an independent autonomous republic within the Soviet Union, became an autonomous region within Moldova in 1994.