Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday evening said that employees of Russian institutions - the embassy, trade mission and Russian Center of Science and Culture - and their family members who were forced to leave Moldova had already returned to Moscow, IPN reports.
“This unfriendly step of official Chisinau first of all it will affect the residents of both countries, whose opportunities to receive timely consular assistance, as well as to maintain business and cultural ties will be significantly reduced,” the Ministry said in a statement.
It noted that “operating in reduced capacity, employees of the Russian embassy won’t be able for objective reasons to ensure the proper amount and timing of consular services.” “Also, the activity of the trade mission and the Russian Center of Science and Culture in Chisinau will have to be limited.”
“The responsibility for this is entirely with the Moldovan leadership, which, within the framework of a large-scale anti-Russian campaign it unleashed, has made an unsubstantiated decision to significantly reduce the number of personnel of Russian foreign missions in Moldova,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Tens of Russian diplomats and their families left the Republic of Moldova on Monday after the Moldovan Government last month ordered to drastically reduce the number of accredited diplomats and technical support staff at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Chisinau, from over 80 persons to 25, to as to ensure parity with Moldova’s embassy in Moscow.
