Chisinau calls trio personae non gratae after accusing embassy of helping convicted lawmaker escape to Transnistria.
Moldova has ordered three Russian diplomats to leave the country after accusing their embassy of helping a pro-Kremlin lawmaker to escape imprisonment, prompting Russia to declare it will mount an “appropriate response”.
Moldova’s Foreign Ministry expelled the Russian Embassy employees on Monday, stating on the messaging app Telegram that its decision was “based on clear evidence on the conduct of activities contrary to the diplomatic status”.
The move provoked an immediate response from Moscow, with Russia’s Foreign Ministry announcing it would hit back, according to a report by state-run news agency RIA Novosti.
The diplomatic spat arose after Moldova accused the Russian Embassy on Monday of engineering the escape of a pro-Kremlin Moldovan lawmaker to the Russian-backed breakaway Transnistria region just as he was about to be jailed over illegal political funding charges.
The case of Alexander Nesterovschii is the latest in which Moldova’s pro-European government has accused Russia of meddling in its political landscape, allegations that Moscow denies.
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Moldova’s security service released footage that allegedly showed Nesterovschii entering the Russian Embassy in Chisinau on March 18, a day before a court sentenced him to 12 years in jail.
The lawmaker has denied charges of illegally channelling money to a pro-Russian party associated with fugitive businessman Ilan Shor at local elections in 2023, as well as the 2024 presidential vote and a national referendum on Moldova’s EU aspirations.
Moldova’s security service said that on the day of his sentencing, Nesterovschii was driven in a white car with diplomatic plates visible in the video to the Transnistria region, which broke away from Moldovan control in the early 1990s.
In a statement, the Russian Embassy said the allegations of interference in the lawmaker’s case were unfounded and unacceptable. It said it had called on the Moldovan authorities to “refrain from provocative speculation”.
Russia’s Ambassador to Moldova Oleg Ozerov was cited by RIA Novosti as saying the co-chairman of the Joint Control Commission, a peacekeeping force overseeing the Transnistria region since 1992, was among the expelled diplomatic trio.
Moldova holds a parliamentary election this autumn that will be a test of the popularity of the pro-EU government’s course.
On Monday, the foreign ministers of Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Poland, along with the European Union’s top diplomat and defence commissioner, said they were ready to adopt new sanctions against Russia over “its war of aggression” in Ukraine.
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