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Attending the meeting on the Russian side were Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, Deputy Prime Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Development of Trade and Economic Relations with the Republic of Moldova Dmitry Kozak.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, colleagues,

Allow me, from the very bottom of my heart, to offer you my sincere greetings and to welcome you here in the Kremlin.

We regularly meet at various venues, but this time we are glad to see you in Moscow.

Mr President, we closely follow the development of the situation with our neighbors, including that in Moldova, we see the efforts you undertake to stabilise Russian-Moldovan relations, and we will facilitate this process in every possible way.

You must be aware already that a special presidential representative for the development of trade and economic ties with the Republic of Moldova has been appointed – Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government, Mr Kozak. I hope that, with his experience, he will substantially facilitate our cooperation.

We will talk today about these areas of our efforts to stabilise and develop inter-governmental ties.

President of Moldova Igor Dodon: Thank you very much.

Mr Putin, esteemed colleagues,

First of all, let me congratulate you on the top level organisation of the FIFA World Cup and a very good performance by the Russian national team. Believe me, all of Moldova – not only the President, but everyone followed the games and are pleased with the result you achieved.

I am very happy to exchange [views] with you on issues of bilateral cooperation. Of course, the latest period has seen ups and downs in our relations.

Among the positive aspects I would stress that, pursuant to our agreements [reached] 18 months ago, when I paid my first visit to the Russian Federation as President, during this period supplies of our goods to the market of the Russian Federation substantially increased thanks to our joint efforts.

Issues on immigrants were resolved. I would like to stress that there was serious progress on the Transnistria matter. I had three meetings with the leader of Transnistria over the period of the last 1.5 years and we were able to substantially resolve the issues on the agenda for resolving problems of the residents of both the left and the right banks.

In connection with this, I would like to re-affirm my position and the position of most citizens of the Republic of Moldova: we believe that the peacemaking mission in the Dniester, the role of Russian peacemakers – this is a successful mission and attempts to undermine or discredit it – believe me, most citizens of the Republic of Moldova understand this. Moreover, last week marked 26 years of this peacekeeping mission, we consider it a success and one that should be continued.

I would like to thank you for the cooperation you provided in getting us observer status at the Eurasian Economic Union. The first session with our employees has already taken place in Moscow. For us this direction and integration projects within the CIS are very important and we believe that both as part of the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Union we can achieve additional results for our economic agents.

Our position is clear and understandable. We want to be friends with everyone, but we do not want to be used geopolitically against someone else. We do not intend to be friends with the West against Russia, this is my position. And despite the fact that within the country there is the Government and a parliamentary majority that might think differently, in several months elections will be held and the situation will change.

I would like to say a big thank you for the new special representative, a person who has serious experience in this area. I hope we will meet with him in the upcoming days and discuss everything in greater detail.

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