Russia expels an employee of the Moldovan Embassy in Moscow

Nov. 10 () –

Russia announced on Wednesday the expulsion of an employee from the Moldovan Embassy in Moscow, in response to a similar measure by Chisinau, amid the crisis in bilateral relations between the two countries.

The Moldovan ambassador in Moscow, Lilian Darius, was summoned this Wednesday by the Russian Foreign Ministry to deliver the document that declared a diplomat from the Moldovan mission in the country as persona non grata.

“On November 9, the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to the Russian Federation, Lilian Darius, has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, who has been presented with a ministerial note declaring an employee persona non grata of the Embassy of Moldova in Moscow”, reads the statement from the ministerial portfolio, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

The text goes on to point out that it is a “response to the one adopted on November 1” by which “the Moldovan side made an unmotivated decision to declare an employee of the Russian Embassy persona non grata.”

Moldova justified the expulsion in the consequences of the war in Ukraine on its territory. “Missile attacks in the neighboring country continue to increase security risks, the devastating consequences of the war are increasingly felt by the citizens of our country,” the Moldovan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure also give rise to growing threats to our country’s energy security.

Moldova’s move is, in the opinion of Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zajarova, a confirmation of the current Moldovan authorities’ course to dismantle bilateral cooperation.