Moldova refuses to participate in meetings of Parliamentary Assembly of Commonwealth of Independent States

Chisinau, 23 March /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova has refused to participate in meetings of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS Parliamentary Assembly), due in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 27-28 March. Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu made statements to this effect following a meeting of the parliament’s Standing Bureau today.    

At a news conference, the speaker said that the reason for the decision would be the lack of actions undertaken by Russia, in order to settle the problems signaled in an earlier submitted note to the Moscow authorities.

“I think that Moldova’s participation in this event is not welcome. We wanted to necessarily discuss this subject with the colleagues. Thus, the Standing Bureau ruled that Moldova will not participate in the CIS Parliamentary Assembly. If we speak about the diplomatic note, submitted to Russia, on abuses against Moldovan officials, there are some positive messages coming from Russia, by diverse means; nevertheless, we do not have an official answer on behalf of Russia. Therefore, the Moldovan parliament’s delegation will not take part in the meetings of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States,” Candu said.    

Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu and Prime Minister Pavel Filip two weeks ago had a meeting with Russian Ambassador to Moldova Farit Mukhametshin. At the event, the officials presented the Russian diplomat a note to the political leadership of Russia, which signals a string of abuses committed against officials of the parliament, government, special services and parties of the ruling coalition from Moldova.    

The note describes the way Moldovan officials are abusively stopped at the entrance into Russia, are interrogated, treated humiliatingly by representatives of the Russian special services. Also, the Russian ambassador was informed that, till the settlement of this problem, the Moldovan officials would be asked to abstain from trips to Russia.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor M. Jantovan)