Temporary Moldavian President Mihai Ghimpu declared in an interview for Russian dailyKommersant why he refused to go to Moscow for the May 9 parade and summons Russia to redraw its army from Transnistria. Ghimpu also refuses the title of pro-Romanian politician, underlining that he is Romanian.

CSI leaders will gather in Moscow for an unofficial summit to mark Victory Day. President Mihai Ghimpu should have been among them. He refused the invitation. Asked by HotNews.ro to explain his decision, after Moldova's capital Chisinau hosted an unofficial CIS summit last fall, Ghimpu stated that he said he was going initially after receiving President Dmitri Medvedev's official invitation.

"Then all sort of awkward movements interfered. Defence minister received from the Russian Defence minister an invitation for 70 Moldavian troops to take part. If that was an official invitation, why wasn't it sent on the Moldavian executive's address? In my opinion, a final decision in such matters is made by the head of the state, not to the minister. First time I refused I used the difficult economic situation and the insufficient time required to calculate the spending that such a trip involves. But later, certain forces transferred the matter into politics, completely inappropriate in this case. That's why, when the Alliance for European integration decided to send to Moscow the bill for the parade I declared that if soldiers go to the parade, I will take part in the events organised in Moldova on this day", Ghimpu said.

Ghimpu also explained why he would not accompany the soldiers to Moscow: "There is the issue of the Russian army in Transnistria. What's left from the USSR. The Nistrian crisis itself could not be solved for over 20 years. In all these years, Russia talks about supporting Moldova's territorial integrity. Something does not match her