Moldova will not attend session of CIS Interparliamentary Assembly - parliament speaker
CHISINAU. March 23 (Interfax) - The Moldovan delegation will not attend the session of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly in St. Petersburg next week, parliament speaker Andrian Candu said.
"This decision was made considering the protest note that was sent by the Moldovan Foreign Ministry to the Russian Foreign Ministry and also the abuses that were committed by certain Russian state institutions," he said at a Thursday press conference following a session of the standing bureau of parliament.
"There have been certain discussions with the Russian authorities, including state secretary of the Russian Foreign Ministry Grigory Karasin," Candu said.
"There was a certain positive reaction from the Russian Federation. The Russian authorities are closely examining the cases listed in the protest note. Nevertheless, we have not received an official answer to the protest note. Therefore, the standing bureau of parliament found it ill-timed for the delegation to participate in the work of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly," he said.
He said that the decision was made considering the concrete situation but "this does not mean that Moldova is boycotting the work of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly."
At the beginning of March the Moldovan authorities handed a protest note to Russia. It expresses dissatisfaction with "abuses by Russia with regard to Moldovan officials" who are "groundlessly stopped, detained and interrogated entering the Russian Federation, they are insulted by officers of the Russian special services." The note says that "Moldovan officials will be advised to refrain from travels to the Russian Federation until the problem is resolved."
Later reports said that Russia detained the deputy prosecutor general, the interior minister and several other officials at the airport. According to media reports, this happened after the Moldovan prosecutor's office started investigating the laundering of $22 billion from Russia through Moldovan banks.
Moldovan President Igor Dodon expressed disagreement with the protest note which he called "a demarche of the parliament and government." Last week during a working visit to Moscow he also said that the Moldovan delegation would attend the session of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly. Experts believe that he meant members of the delegation representing the pro-presidential Socialist Party.
