Onishchenko says poor wine has obscured Moldovan authorities' minds

The Russian sanitary service RosPotrebNadzor will refrain from visiting Moldovan wineries with a view to settling issues related to imports of Moldovan wine because it would be “a waste of time”, said the service's head Ghennady Onishchenko, according to the agency RIA Novosti. “The Moldovan authorities' behavior, especially at the end of the last week, outweighed the scales in a direction to abstain from further actions, bearing in mind that the nature of their statements did not have any constructiveness and would turn our expert efforts into a waste of time,” Onishchenko was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying. “The only thing which could justify such logic of behavior could be a fact of an indirect evidence of a cumulative impact of harmful substances, which we constantly find in the desired output (Moldovan wine), on a health status (of Moldovan authorities) and, therefore, (their) mental processes,” Onishchenko said. Earlier, Russia's chief sanitary official doubted the professional capacities of the Moldovan authorities, in particular of the Filat Government, in connection with issues related to deliveries of Moldovan wine to the Russian market. RosPotrebNadzor imposed new restrictions on Moldopvan wine imports, citing safety concerns, right after Moldova's acting president attempted to introduce a day of mourning for the victims of the Soviet regime. The Russian authorities denied any political motivation. RIA Novosti's news article doesn't specify which statements “at the end of the last week” are involved. On Friday, August 20, acting president Mihai Ghimpu stated on a tour of Moldovan wineries that “the problem with deliveries of Moldovan wine to the Russian market appeared because of the upcoming elections in Moldova this autumn”. The Moldovan authorities haven't yet reacted to the statements of the Russian official.