Defense minister says he will resign if AEI demands

Minister of Defense Vitalie Marinuta said he was ready to tender his resignation if the Alliance for European Integration (AEI) demanded this. On September 29, the official was questioned in Parliament about the munitions that were recently sold by Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. Vitalie Marinuta said the transaction was legal. There were sold old munitions that can no longer be used and were included in the list of facilities for sale that was approved by the legislature. The minister refused to tell which country bought the weapons, saying the information was confidential. He confirmed that the first time the plane came to Moldova from Libya. It was loaded with munitions and took off. The second time yet, it departed unloaded from Moldova owing to the ruckus in the press. Communist lawmaker Artur Reshetnikov, former director of the Security and Information Service, said it is not right for Moldova to sell weapons to a country that experiences a frozen conflict, as the munitions were reportedly taken to Armenia. Answering the Communist MPs’ questions, Vitalie Marinuta said no representative of parliamentary organizations was on the spot when the munitions were loaded. Asked if it’s true that bombs from the Transnistrian region were also sold, the minister denied such an allegation. In mid-September, a plane landed at the Chisinau International Airport and then at the Marculesti Airport, where it was loaded up with munitions. The press reported that the armament was taken to Armenia.