The State Mint of Poland has broken up contract on making coins for the separatist republic of Transnistria.

Newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza wrote last weekend the contract stoppage decision had been taken under the pressure by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of State Property. According to the article author, several weeks ago the Ministry of State Property sent a letter to State Mint Director Mr. Tadeusz Stekevicz reproaching him of staining the country's image and promoting a destabilization of Poland's diplomatic relations.

The newspaper article said that last December, a truck was detained at a Ukrainian Customs house near Lvov city, carrying a big consignment of coins totaling 8 million Transnistrian rubles. The Ukrainians passed the money over to Moldova, whose authorities reproached Warsaw for backing separatists of Transnistria - "a small state created by Russian special services and not recognized even by a single country in the world".

He paper wrote that the contract, concluded 5 years ago between the Mint and the Transnistrian administration, has spoiled Poland's relations with Ukraine as well, because Transnistria smuggles cigarettes, liquor, piracy computer software and music discs via the Ukrainian seaports at Odessa and Crimea.

"When we asked the Ukrainians to interfere somehow, they replied to us that Poland itself has interests in Transnistria, Polish diplomats recognize unofficially", wrote the article author.

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the country's General Prosecutor's Office to examine the dispute and say whether the coin minting for Transnistria enters in contravention with the law, although the Ministry of State Property presumes that no.

And, still, the passing of the coins via Polish border-crossing stations causes doubts concerning this operation's legitimacy.

Moldova believes that Poland, as a European Union member state, is not eligible to produce currency for unrecognized states. Such contracts are concluded only on inter-state level, and licenses for the production of money are issued only by the National Bank of a country. // INFOTAG

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