CHISINAU. Aug 14 (Interfax) - Moldova's former president and executive secretary of the Party of Socialists Igor Dodon has warned the government that its policies will backfire.
"The anti-Russia policy of the current authorities will hit Moldovan citizens, not the Kremlin, and risks serious domestic destabilization," Dodon said on Telegram on Monday, commenting on the Moldovan authorities' decision to reduce the number of staff at the Russian embassy in Chisinau.
"Polls show our population is split about 50/50 into West and East sympathizers, there is the unresolved conflict with Transdniestria and tensions with Gagauzia have been rising recently," Dodon said.
"Apparently, our authorities are not worried about all this. In blindly following the instructions of their foreign curators, they are earning themselves a golden parachute - a carefree life in Western structures. At the same time, they have brazenly deceived our population, which instead of the promised good times has been plunged into destitution and instability," Dodon said.
"The anti-Russian demarches of the Moldovan leadership will not remain unanswered," he also said, warning of Russia's possible retaliation such as "curbs on our agricultural sector, whose target market is 70% the CIS, and Russia in particular. Despite the authorities' bravura declarations of a pivot to EU countries, we have no other market for our fruit and vegetable and wine exports, which would consume the volumes we produce. Moreover, some Russian parliamentarians are already asking themselves whether Russia should restrict entry for Moldovan citizens, as our government has done by deporting dozens of Russians daily," Dodon said.
"Only recently Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu was persuading us that we cannot follow in the West's footsteps and downsize the Russian embassy because we have only a few diplomats working at our diplomatic mission in Moscow," he said.
"Possible response measures would hit hundreds of thousands of Moldovans working in Russia: our embassy's consular section has recently faced major difficulties in providing them with services booked months ahead. For its part, Russia's Foreign Ministry has said that it did not intend yet to downgrade our diplomatic relations, i.e. Moscow has been understanding of the problems of our citizens, which is not to say about our government," Dodon said.
It was reported that a large group of diplomats and technical staff from the Russian Embassy to Moldova flew out of Chisinau on Monday morning. The employees left the country after the decision last month by Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration to reduce the number of staff at the Russian embassy.