The three members of the Party “Building Europe at Home” (PACE), who were detained at the Sheremetyevo Airport, intentionally didn’t obey the rules of entering the Russian Federation, IPN reports, quoting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.

According to operative information received from the Russian authorities, one of the three Moldovan citizens, knowing that he was banned from entering Russia, went to Moscow being aware of the consequences of such a decision, stated the Ministry.

“All the circumstances of the trip show it was a premeditated provocation staged by the representatives of the political party and the responsible authorities of the Republic of Moldova, including the electoral authority, will be informed about this.”

The Ministry also said that the information about the “abusive arrest” of the three PACE members wasn’t confirmed. When the press release was issued, the three Moldovans were in the international area of the Moscow airport and were to return to the Republic of Moldova in the evening of July 4. The group had reserved tickets for the Chisinau flight of 10:50pm.

In such circumstances, the representatives of the election contender tried to also attract the Moldovans who settled in the Russian Federation in the given provocation. The alleged meeting with voters was set to take place in St Petersburg on July 4, the same day the group was to return. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers the intentional involvement of the citizens in deliberate provocations is unacceptable and the Central Election Commission will be informed about this by a separate notice.

The Ministry also condemns the protest mounted at its head office, which was evidently correlated with the Moscow actions of the representatives of this party and was aimed at disseminating political messages based on erroneous facts and unverified information.

In the morning of July 4, members of the PACE told a news conference their leader Gheorghe Cavcaliuc was arrested at the Sheremetyevo Airport. They said that Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, together with the head of the party’s Chisinau local organization Alexandru Cârpă and the vice president in charge of the diaspora Valentina Geamănă, was to have a meeting with the Moldovan diaspora in St Petersburg at 6pm.