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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday called “irresponsible” the call launched by Maia Sandu, the pro-European winner of Moldova’s presidential elections, to withdraw Russian troops from the country, AFP said, quoted by Agerpres.
“This is unlikely to help solve it and we will be able to accept such irresponsible demands,” Lavrov told a news conference on Tuesday.
Since the early 1990s, Russian forces have been deployed in Transnistria, a pro-Russian territory that was separated from Moldova after the collapse of the USSR.
Russian soldiers are mainly involved in a peacekeeping operation under a peace agreement signed in 1992 that ended an armed conflict between Chisinau and Transnistria, which resulted in 1,000 deaths.
According to Radio Chisinau, Maia Sandu said this Monday, at a press conference in Chisinau, that there is no agreement signed by the Republic of Moldova to allow the deployment of the operational group of Russian forces in the Transnistrian region, as well as military ammunition. “Our goal is to achieve the withdrawal of Russian forces from the territory of Moldova,” he said.
The president-elect specified that the official position of Chisinau is and will remain that these troops and military ammunition should be withdrawn from the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Regarding the status of the Russian peacekeepers, Maia Sandu reiterated the position previously expressed by Chisinau according to which the peacekeeping mission should be transformed into a civilian one, under the mandate of the OSCE.
In the face of this year’s protest movements in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, in what it considers its area of influence, Russia has openly supported Maia Sandu’s rival, current President Igor Dodon, AFP notes.
Publisher: Liviu Cojan
