Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to order the assassinationof Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin if Voronin doesn't followRussia's orders. That is the latest theory from a leading Moldovannewspaper. "Jurnal de Chisinau" also writes that if Voronin doesn't getkilled before his term expires, the Moldovan people will put him ontrial for crimes committed while in office.

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - The only way that Moldova's PresidentVladimir Voronin can avoid a jail term for the crimes that he hascommitted is if he gets killed by Russia's President Vladimir Putinfirst. That is the theory of Moldovan newspaper Jurnal de Chişinău, writing on the two main risks to the future of Moldova's Communist strongman.

Authoritarian leader Vladimir Voronin has to follow orders fromRussia or his life is at risk, the newspaper believes. The formerSoviet-era General has Russian citizenship and if he doesn't carry outPutin's orders, Putin will have him "offed", says a newly publishedtheory.

In case Voronin refuses to carry out the orders from Moscow, Putincan order murder of his Moldovan counterpart, writes the newspaper inits latest edition. The Jurnal does not indicate what thoseorders are, but merely explains to its readers that Vladimir Voronin isguilty of numerous crimes within Moldova and that he is only saved byhis tight control of the regime's security forces.

" - Since 2001 to this day, Voronin has broken human rights, andpursued and flung into prisons so many people that he would not avoidin any way a trial after the expiration of the mandate", writes Jurnal de Chisinau.

The paper is convinced that "the communist leader will not findrefuge in any lawful state but only in Russia. (..) He either singsunder Moscow’s pipe, or falls under action of the recently adopted law,allowing Russian agents to punish enemies of the Kremlin abroad by"specific means and methods."

The newspaper underlines that "murders, committed by the Russiansecret services abroad have been showing that at present the Kremlindoesn’t have neither any legal restrictions, nor moral interdictions.Everybody might be threatened."

Soviet general and Russian citizen

Vladimir Voronin was a Soviet general until 1991, when the SovietUnion disintegrated. His status was automatically transferred to thatof a Russian general, a post which he held until 1992. After 1992, hethen on a regular basis received a general's pension from Moscow.
As several newspapers in Moldova have repeatedly pointed out recently,it would be impossible to receive such a pension without holdingRussian citizenship. Former Moldovan presidential advisor Sergiu Mocanuhas confirmed that Vladimir Voronin holds Russian citizenship, whileVoronin himself has denied it and refused to show his Russian passport.

Unlike democratically elected Igor Smirnov, the president ofTransdniestria, Vladimir Voronin was never directly elected by thevoters to the top post in his country. Instead, he was merely appointedby to the presidency by the Moldovan parliament, in which his party -the Communist Party - holds a majority of the deciding votes.

With the discovery of Voronin's Russian citizenship, he should now resign, Jurnal de Chisinaubelieves. The newspaper writes that holding Russian citizenshipdeprives Voronin of the legitimacy of his appointment to the post ofthe President of the Republic of Moldova.