Communist MPs say it's right to expel Romanian ambassador and opposition blames Communists to save its reputation

The decision to expel the Romanian ambassador to Chisinau and to institute visas for Romanians are grounded and adequate, and the opposition parties accuse the Communists for the vandalism acts of April 7 in order to save their reputation. Those opinions have been expressed by Communist (PCRM) MPs , Vladimir Turcan and Grigore Petrenco, in a press conference on Thursday, Info-Prim Neo reports. Both share the opinion that Romania is behind the Chisinau protests, in which the buildings of the Parliament and the Presidency were vandalized. “Yesterday's decisions were a natural reaction of the authorities to defend the Moldovan state, and the best step that Bucharest can make to ease the tension is to sign the long-expected basic treaty between Moldova and Romania,” said Vladimir Turcan. “This adequate decision was meant to draw the attention that in this corner of Europe there is a very big problem between Romania and Moldova. Romania is the only state from the EU which does not recognize the identity of the Moldovans and uses in official speeches the term “the second Romanian state”. The authorities wanted to show that Moldova is an independent state and not a backyard,” said MP Grigore Petrenco. According to the parliamentarians, a proof of Romania's being directly involved in Moldova's domestic affairs is the fact that Romanian citizens attended the protests, the Romanian flag was hoisted on the presidential building, the mod shouted pro-Romanian slogans, union messages were written on the walls of the two institutions, Romanian media were covering the events live presenting them as “the Chisinau revolution”, a message taken by the instigators to call on people to join a revolution on Friday. Turcan and Petrenco say there is sufficient video evidence to prove those accusations. The Communists MPs support the version of the Moldovan president and the Communists' leader Vladimir Voronin, that the protests pursued a coup d'etat and were organized by those three opposition parties entering the parliament – the Liberal Party (PL), the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM) and Our Moldova Alliance (AMN). They opine the opposition resorted to such a move because it does not know to lose. They reject the opposition's accusations that the Communist authorities would be the genuine organizers of the acts of vandalism. Vladimir Turcan has said penal inquests are under way to establish the organizers of the protests. According to him, the police has arrested over 100 people, suspected of being the main organizers of the vandalism acts. They also know the people who funded the actions, one of them being the businessman Gabriel Stati, arrested in Ukraine. Turcan says dollars were paid to the people to participate in the riots. Turcan vows more arrests are expected, including the managers of the educational institutions instigating the youth to go to protests.