On Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova declared an employee of the Russian Embassy in Chisinau an unwanted person and gave him 48 hours to leave the country.
The decision comes hours after authorities in Chisinau detained two Moldovan officials following a security raid on the Parliament building in connection with an espionage investigation.
Russia’s ambassador, Oleg Vasnetsov, “was summoned today to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was given a letter declaring an employee of the Embassy persona non-grata”, the Ministry said in a press release on Thursday.
She added that the decision was taken after the Moldovan authorities provided “information and evidence” proving that the Russian diplomat committed “action that is not compatible with the diplomatic status on the territory of Moldova”.
The decision to expel the Russian diplomat, whose name was not released, came shortly after agents of Moldova’s Intelligence and Security Service and the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime raided the Moldovan Parliament building and detained a legislative staff and a border police officer, suspected of treason and conspiracy.
They allegedly collected information and gave it to an employee of the Russian Embassy in Chisinau, which harms the interests of Moldova.
“It is important to make sure now that this case of treason will be punished in the most severe way, based on the law,” Moldova’s pro-Western president Maia Sandu told Jurnal TV on Wednesday evening.
In August last year, Moldova expelled 45 of 70 Russian diplomats from the Embassy in Chisinau after a media investigation revealed that the Embassy building had a very high number of antennas installed at its peak, which were suspected of collected information for Russia’s intelligence services.
Since the start of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moldova has sided with the West in condemning the invasion and hosted tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
Last month, Moldova opened membership talks with the European Union, after receiving the status of a candidate country along with Ukraine in June 2022. /REL/
