Vlad Filat coordinated sale of armament to Armenia, Communist MPs

The Communist lawmakers say the armament belonging to the Armed Forces of Moldova was sold to Armenia with serious violations and the whole process was coordinated by Prime Minister Vlad Filat, Info-Prim Neo reports. “I want to confirm that the transaction was to end with the departure of the MIG warplanes from the Marculesti military base, which were transferred from the Ministry of Defense in nontransparent conditions. After a number of auctions, these planes were to be sold at the price of parts for aircraft. The entire deal was coordinated by Vladimir Filat,” MP Alexandr Petkov said in a news conference. Lawmaker Anatolie Gorila, who headed the Parliament’s commission of inquiry for establishing the circumstances in which the armament was sold, said that the sale process was performed with serious violations and Deputy Prime Minister Valeriu Lazar, who is the chairman of the governmental commission for armament sale, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Popov, who is a member of the commission, and Iurie Richicinschi, the secretary of the Supreme Security Council, are to blame for this. Among the persons who should be held accountable, Anatolie Gorila named the acting head of the Security and Information Service Valentin Dediu and Minister of Defense Vitalie Marinuta. He said that all the related materials were sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office. “These officials should be dismissed,” stated Gorila. Last September, a plane landed at the Marculesti airport in order to take a batch of armament intended for Armenia. A parliamentary commission was set up to investigate the case. In its report presented at the end of March, the commission said that the armament was sold with grave violations of the legal procedures and those to blame included ministers and deputy ministers. After the then sitting of Parliament, Speaker Marian Lupu said that he and Vlad Filat found out about the transaction post-factum.