The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Chisinau has one of the largest buildings in Chisinau and since it was erected its size has been a mystery given that the Republic of Moldova is too small for such a Russian embassy.
Diplomatic parity means the equaling of the number of diplomats and heads of diplomatic missions between the two countries that established relations that are regulated by the Vienna Convention of April 18, 1961, which provides that: “In the absence of specific agreement as to the size of the mission, the receiving State may require that the size of a mission be kept within limits considered by it to be reasonable and normal, having regard to circumstances and conditions in the receiving State and to the needs of the particular mission.”
In the case of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova, since diplomatic offices were opened, disparity has existed to the detriment of Chisinau. This way, at the moment the Russian Federation has in the embassy 37 accredited diplomats and 34 technical-administrative employees. Besides the employees accredited to the embassy of the Russian Federation, there are eight more Russian diplomats who work at the Russian Center for Culture and Science (Rossotrudnichestvo), which is known as a propaganda hotbed and some of the countries, including Romania, closed these centers. Also, the Russian Federation has five more diplomats who work at the Migration Bureau (Antechamber of Consular Section of Russia’s Embassy) and there are not many data about them as these are very discreet in their work.
The exiting data show the campus of the Embassy of Russia is populated by about 140 persons, including family members.
For its part, the Republic of Moldova has 12 accredited diplomatic posts in the Russian Federation and six technical-administrative employees. At the moment, only six Moldovan diplomats represent the Republic of Moldova in Moscow.
The case of disparity of the Republic of Moldova is not the only one. The U.S. is another example. There are about 400 Russian diplomats in the U.S., as opposed to about 100 U.S. diplomats accredited to Moscow and the problem of achieving parity was also raised in this case. Some countries, such as Bulgaria, Estonia, and the Czech Republic, following security analyses, already applied the diplomatic parity principle.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, a number of EU and non-EU member states drastically reduced the large Russian diplomatic corps. According to assessments, since the outbreak of the war the measure to expel diplomats has been applied to 400 persons with a diplomatic and technical status as these carried out activities that were incompatible with the status of diplomat, being suspected of affiliation to SVR, FSB or GRU. Only two Russian diplomats have been recently expelled from the Republic of Moldova, which is insignificant against the large number of “diplomatic functionaries” of Moscow.
In the case of Romania, 11 diplomats were initially expelled “for activities incompatible with the status of diplomat”. At the beginning of June 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest offered the embassy a period of 30 days to reduce its staff to 51 employees, both diplomats and employees in charge of different areas. If the Russian embassy in Romania hadn’t complied with the request, 40 persons would have been declared “persona non grata” and undesirable. On July 1, another 11 diplomats and 29 Russian employees of the Embassy of Russia in Bucharest left Romania with a special flight. This way, the total number of diplomatic and technical-administrative posts at the Embassy of Russia in Romania decreased by 61%, while the effective number of personnel decreased by 55.5%, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest.
What Moldovan authorities say
PAS MP Andrian Cheptonar, a member of the Parliament’s commission on national security, defense and public order and a former SIS officer, said given that the so-called diplomats actually are mainly espionage officers who work intensely to destabilize our country, to buy politicians and make them sell their country - ultimately to keep Moldova in corruption and poverty – time has come to end this attitude and to bring normality and equality into our relations. According to the PAS MP, “currently, our institutions are taking all the measures to analyze all the possible consequences of the eventual institution of parity in the number of diplomats so as to minimize the impact of the estimated asymmetric response of the Kremlin to Chisinau”.
For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova responded to Deschide.MD that “the government team is considering a number of
scenarios and responses, depending on the regional situation and the situation in our country”. It noted that the Moldovan authorities in the recent past took a number of firm decisions to counteract the hostile actions of the Russian Federation.
“Our response actions are permanently discussed in a broad format, with the whole government team. Any major foreign policy decision initiated by the authorities of the state will be made public when this is taken,” the Ministry said in its response.
President Maia Sandu repeatedly warned and condemned the Russian Federation’s actions in the Republic of Moldova, like the attempts to destabilize the country made by Moscow through the agency of fugitive oligarchs. In the “European Moldova “ Assembly of May 21, President Sandu said the Republic of Moldova chose the European integration path so as to no longer live under Russian blackmail, in poverty and corruption.
“During 34 years, they have tried to block our future, to divide us, to keep us in poverty, to blackmail us. They wanted us to be dependent, to freeze and fall. But we resisted!” said then Maia Sandu.
Also, Prime Minister Dorin Recean announced that Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials will be banned entry into the Republic of Moldova. The Moldovan officials’ attitude dissatisfied Moscow that tries to thwart the Republic of Moldova’s European path through a hybrid war, according to the current government.
In this regard, spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova tried to justify the large number of diplomats and non-diplomats accredited to Chisinau, using such false data as the presence of 500,000 Moldovans in Russia, when the given figure that was announced by the Russian authorities themselves in 2021, before the start of the invasion of Ukraine, was of 130,000. According to information provided by the Moldovan authorities, 45,000 to 60,000 Moldovans are currently in Russia. Zakharova also accused the authorities in Chisinau of Russophobia and obedience to the West.
“Following the course of the anti-Russian campaigns of the collective West, the authorities of the Republic of Moldova resort to the destruction of the Moldovan-Russian relations and to the deterioration of the humanitarian relations between the people of our countries. The initiative to reduce the personnel of the Embassy of Russia in Chisinau forms part of the same series,” stated Maria Zakharova
The article was taken from the portal Deschide.MD.
