Rogozin blames Democratic Party leader for disruption of his trip to Moldova, vows countermeasures
MOSCOW. Aug 2 (Interfax) - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has said that Vlad Plahotniuc, the leader of Moldova's ruling Democratic Party, is behind the disruption of his trip to Chisinau and Tiraspol and that countermeasures will be suggested for consideration by the Russian political leadership.
"Naturally, we do not want to reveal any secrets or results of our inquiry so far. It is still being conducted. But I can already say that Mr. Plahotniuc was behind this provocation. He was the one who organized the entire thing. It was his goal to set us against Romania, and everything was done like businessmen do - by making somebody else do the job," Rogozin told a Moldovan TV channel, NTV, in an interview.
Plahotniuc ordered Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip to call Bucharest, he said. "The call was made, and it was decided on a very high level to ban the plane from entering the Romanian airspace," Rogozin said.
It is being clarified who made the final decision, he said.
"They waited until the plane took off and once it was in the air and passed the Polish airspace, amongst others, as well as the Slovak [airspace] they imposed the ban. That was done wittingly and blatantly, in violation of the rights of people flying that plane. Let me repeat that this is not about me. It was a rude thing to do to the Moldovan citizens, who constituted a majority," Rogozin said.
Speaking of countermeasures, Rogozin said that other individuals responsible for that decision were also being identified.
"When this analysis is done, we will prepare our suggestions on the measures to be taken against those persons for consideration of the Russian political leadership," Rogozin said.
Russia's countermeasures should be absolutely orderly and personalized, he said.
"We should punish the culprits instead of applying the usual practice of awarding the uninvolved and punishing the innocent. The culprits will soon be identified and necessary decisions will definitely be made," Rogozin said.
The disruption of negotiations with Moldovan President Igor Dodon deprived Chisinau of an opportunity to increase its budget with tens of millions of dollars through the new proposals Russia intended to make in Chisinau, Rogozin said.
"We wanted to do a lot for Moldova. By the way, I was flying to Chisinau after I had requested a meeting with Moldovan government members to formulate new economic cooperation proposals. I will not be speaking of them now, as they are no longer topical. I believe they have lost tens or maybe hundreds of millions of dollars just because of the single rude gesture," he said.
"Every agreement we have reached with the Moldovan government is being ruined," Rogozin said.
Rogozin referred to the meeting the bilateral intergovernmental commission he co-chaired on behalf of Russia, which took place in Moscow in the end of last year.
"All of us thought that something important was happening in our relations. We were ready to meet the Moldovan economy halfway and to open the market in some areas. This is a huge eastern market for Moldova, and those who decline to open this market to their own farmers, businessmen, etc. are enemies of their own country. All over sudden, there was an escalation of tensions," he said.
Everything started with the detention of Russian officials visiting Transdniestria for various reasons, and actions against Russian servicemen were stepped up next, Rogozin said.
"What is the possible result of the inability to rotate our peacekeepers? The peacekeeping mission will be expanded with Moldovans and Transdniestrians. Some 200,000 citizens of ours live in Transdniestria. What are they prompting us to do? Do they want Transdniestrian residents to become Russian peacekeepers? Who will be responsible? No one else but Plahotniuc and the Moldovan government he controls," Rogozin said.
Rogozin's visit to Moldova was thwarted last Friday after Romania had denied the plane carrying the Russian deputy prime minister a permission to enter its airspace. Romania explained its decision with the blacklisting of Rogozin, who actually travelled to Moldova via Romania before. The Moldovan authorities said last week that Rogozin's visit to Chisinau would be 'undesirable' and asked for not attending the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the peacekeeping operation in the Dniester area.
During his trip to Moldova, Rogozin intended to attend the events in Transdniestria and to be present at a meeting between Moldovan President Igor Dodon and Transdniestrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky in Bender. The Transdniestrian leaders refused to meet with Dodon due to Rogozin's non-attendance at the meeting.