The Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) has known about the espionage systems placed on the roof of Russia’s Embassy in Chisinau. After President Maia Sandu confirmed this, PAS MP Adrian Cheptonar did the same. According to the MP, the large number of Russian diplomats present in Moldova was inherited by the PAS from the former governments and the decision to institute diplomatic parity is at least 25 years late, IPN reports.
The official Chisinau decided to equal the diplomatic, administrative and technical personnel between Russia and Moldova. Under the decision, at the current stage, based on the principle of parity each state will be represented by 10 diplomats and 15 administrative and technical specialists. According to MP of the ruling party PAS Adrian Cheptonar, the decision is late and was influenced by public reports about the espionage systems installed on the roof of Russia’s Embassy in Chisinau.
“During 30 years, they have got used to behaving like masters in Chisinau and being impertinent. I want to assure you that the SIS’s counterespionage subdivision knew very well much more details than the reports that became public. Those things were known. I want to praise our counterespionage service. The decision is at least 25 years late. We inherited that large personal at the embassy. From their perspective, such an action can be considered unfriendly and they said this, but this is exactly what should have been done,” PAS MP Adrian Cheptonar stated in the program “Shadow Cabinet” on JurnalTV channel.
“There is not only the embassy. We also have the Russian Center of Science and Culture that is also a kind of epicenter of actions aimed against the Republic of Moldova. When the war against Ukraine started, a group of children from the Republic of Moldova was sent to Crimea to vacation through the agency of this Center. We are used to the courage of investigative journalists, but we are less used to the courage of the authorities with regard to Russia,” said the director of the Association of Independent Press Petru Macovei.
The leader of the Coalition for Unity and Welfare Igor Munteanu said the institution of diplomatic parity with Russia is late, while the Moldovan authorities’ lack of attitude towards Russia encouraged Moscow’s interference in the internal policy of the state.
“The given episode represents escalation of the relations and we don’t yet know how we will be hit back by the Russian Federation. Regrettably, we do not yet have in society consensus about the Russian Federation’s noxious influence. In Estonia and Lithuania, there was such a consensus for rooting out the Russian influence and advancing swiftly towards NATO and the EU. We do not yet have sufficiently powerful consensus in this regard and this thing is exploited by criminal groups, such as the Shor group that receives Russian financing and takes over the initiative, as it did in Gagauzia, Balti, Orhei,” stated Igor Munteanu.
The Moldovan authorities’ decision to equal the number of diplomatic, administrative and technical specialists between Russia and Moldova was communicated to Russia’s Ambassador in Chisinau on July 26 and will take effect on August 15, 2023.
