Who are the Moldovan officials banned from entering the Russian Federation
The First Secretary of the Consular Section of the Moldovan Embassy in Russia, Valeriu Manea, has reportedly been declared persona non grata and four other Moldovan officials have been banned from entering the Russian Federation, Russian media reports. Some officials targeted by Russia's bans have reacted by describing Moscow's gesture as evidence of "weakness" and "frustration".
According to the Russian press, Interior Minister Ana Revenco and PAS deputies Oazu Nantoi, Olesea Stamate and Lilian Carp have been banned from entering Russia.
MP Lilian Carp reacted to the measure and, in a live post on social media, said it was a decision taken out of "frustration".
"No one is going to go to the territory of the Russian Federation, as long as there are terrorist actions of the Russian Federation in relation to Ukraine, but also to other states. We have to understand that this decision is out of frustration, because we have always said that Vladimir Putin is using the two-coloured symbol that he is trying to pass off as the St. George's ribbon, which has nothing to do with war. (...) Nothing new under the sun. Russia is exporting terrorism by creating grey zones in former Soviet states. These are actions through which Russia has exported terrorism. Russia must learn to respect its neighbours," said the MP.
MP Oazu Nantoi says the Russian Foreign Ministry's decision is evidence of Russia's "weakness".
"It is a proof of Russia's weakness, that it cannot and is not able to propose anything positive to Moldova. It has become an aggressor country, condemned by the whole democratic world. As for my humble self, as early as 2019, when I went to Moscow as part of the official delegation of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, I was told that I was persona non grata on the territory of the Russian Federation. Nothing new. My friends in Ukraine called me and congratulated me. It's sad that the great Russian Federation is degenerating into a North Korean-type regime", Oazu Nantoi told Deschide.md.
The decisions of the Moscow authorities were communicated today to Moldova's ambassador to the Russian Federation, Lilian Darii. Russia is thus responding to the measures taken by the authorities in Chisinau, which banned the entry of the Tatarstan leader into Moldova and expelled an employee of the Russian Embassy.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu, described Moscow's decisions as "a continuation of the hostile actions that the Russian Federation has been taking over time" towards the Republic of Moldova.
