The chairman of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia (PAG) Dmitry Konstantinov asserts that he no longer has a diplomatic passport. He said that after being deprived of the document that granted him privileges when crossing the border, he no longer needs such a document, IPN reports, citing local media. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) denied this information provided to the press by the official from Comrat.

A day after returning from Moscow, the PAG head told the press that when returning from Moscow to the Chisinau airport, he learned that his diplomatic passport had been canceled and “is no longer registered in the country”.

His luggage was subjected to a thorough search, he said. “When I flew [to Moscow] on Saturday, everything was fine with the papers. But on my return, when I presented my diplomatic passport, they said that they had to verify my data and in half an hour, they told me to take note that my diplomatic passport was withdrawn,” Dmitry Konstantinov told a press conference in Comrat.

Contacted by IPN for a comment, the Press Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that in the process of controlling the crossing of the state border, the Border Police has the power to seize documents that are found to be invalid and, according to the procedures, these are transmitted to the issuing entity.

In this connection, another source from Comrat quoted the head of the General Police Inspectorate Viorel Cernăuțeanu as saying that on the night of April 23, more than 150 searches were carried out in the country, including of citizens arriving from the “Shor event” held in Moscow. US$1.1 million, €3,070 and 62,000 Russian rubles were seized. “We are talking about money whose origin could not be explained,” said the official. During the searches, 128 mobile phones of the alleged couriers were seized and their contents has been studied.

Cernăuțeanu pointed out that each courier was rewarded with €300 to €500 for the delivery of the money. The perpetrators tried to bring in the principal amount through the airport. They also transported money by land transport. In order to mislead the police, each batch didn’t exceed US$10,000 or €9,000, which doesn’t require declaration when crossing the border. Some of the couriers, after talking to the police, cooperated and admitted to transporting money illegally.

The investigations continue. None of the suspects questioned at the airport have been detained.

IPN notes that the law on identity documents in the national passport system stipulates that the diplomatic passport is used for “official purposes abroad in the interests of the state”, while the Moldovan authorities say that the meeting in Moscow represented the interests of another state and had opposite purposes.