On August 2, Moldova’s Ambassador to Russia Andrei Neguta was invited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin expressed a firm protest against the Moldovan Government’s decision to declare Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin a persona non-grata.

Mr Karasin emphasised that Russia has been consistently working on the development of active relations with Moldova in the past few years. Measures taken in trade, the economy, migration and other areas of our cooperation are well known. Chisinau’s irresponsible steps aimed at deliberately undermining bilateral relations stand in contrast to this.

It was noted that not only high-ranking Russian representatives and peacekeepers but also ordinary citizens of both countries have recently become targets of provocations. It seems that Chisinau politicians are trying to get to the forefront of the hysterical and hopeless campaign that has been launched against the Russian Federation.

All this evokes lawful indignation and will receive a proper answer. Moreover, we must emphasise that such dangerous actions may have a serious destabilising influence on the general situation in the region and Europe as a whole. This is particularly topical in the context of the continued attempts of a number of Moldovan politicians to artificially exacerbate the situation around settlement in Transnistria.