The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation commented on the official Chisinau’s decision to declare a Russian diplomat an undesirable person, noting that it does not have a clear justification. “The Russian side reserves the right to give an appropriate response to the Moldovan authorities’ hostile, unmotivated decision regarding the employee of the Embassy of Russia,” said Maria Zakharova, quoted by IPN.

“We consider this unfriendly measure is another manifestation of the aggressive anti-Russian course of the current Moldovan leadership, which irresponsibly destroys the Russian-Moldovan ties with deep historical roots. The intensification of Russophobic sentiments, the fabrication and promotion of “spy stories” attest to the loss of official Chisinau’s capacity to take appropriate measures, to realize the lasting importance of the relations between Russia and Moldova for the peoples of the two states,” Maria Zakharova’s comment reads.

The assistant to the military attaché of the the Embassy of Russia in Chisinau was declared undesirable in Moldova on August 1, after two Moldovan officials were detained a day earlier on suspicion of treason. According to prosecutors, they allegedly collected and furnished information detrimental to the interests of the Republic of Moldova to an employee of Russia’s Embassy in Chisinau. Sources of RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service in diplomatic circles and in the Security and Intelligence Service said that this is Dmitry Kelov, one of the ten Russian diplomats who remained in the Embassy in Chisinau after the great expulsion of August 2023.