The deputy minister of foreign affairs of Russia Grigory Karasin said the Moldovan authorities’ statements about the assessment of the damage and seeking of damages from Russia for the illegal stay of its army on Moldova’s territory are provocative. The comments were made after Moldova’s Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu accused Russia of violating the international law and announced Moldova’s intention to estimate the damage caused by the illegal stay of the Russian army in the Transnistrian region during 25 years, which could rise to billions of US dollars, IPN reports, with reference to RIA Novosti.

“Last yearend, owing to the efforts made by the international community, those from Tiraspol and Chisinau, positive solutions were achieved. We should focus on these, not on such provocative appeals,” stated Grigory Karasin, commenting on Andrian Candu’s statements. The Russian official also said that such statements affect the peacekeeping operation on the Nistru. The politicians should understand that the peacekeeping mission served as a guarantor of the development of the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria and continues to be the guarantor of peace.

Acceding to Grigory Karasin, such problems can be solved not with resounding statements made from rostrums, but gradually, by deliberate actions aimed at achieving the objectives set by the sides involved in the Transnistrian settlement process.

Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu proposed an initiative providing that Moldova will hire an international law firm to estimate the financial damage caused by the Russian army’s stay in Transnistria without the consent of the country’s constitutional authorities.