Russia expels Moldovan diplomat for “principle of reciprocity”

O russia's government today announced the expulsion of a Moldovan diplomat in response to a similar measure against a Russian embassy official in Moldova.

“ A note from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was delivered to the Moldovan ambassador, stating that the Russian side, by virtue of the principle of reciprocity, declares a member of the Moldovan embassy in Russia as undesirable,” Russian diplomacy said in a statement.

The note was delivered to Moldovan ambassador Lilian Darii during his call to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs today in Moscow details the statement.

At the end of October, Moldova’s President, Maia Sandu, announced that a “member of the Russian embassy team” was declared “persona non grata”, after a “Russian attack drone” violated the country’s airspace and “fell close to homes and an energy facility”.

Russian diplomacy has again refuted these accusations today, arguing that there is no evidence of the “Russian origin of the drone”.

The body denounced a “new hostile act” that aims to dismantle “Russian-Modern relations, rich in secular history”.

The Moldovan territory has been violated by drones on several occasions since the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, launched in 2022.

Relations between Moscow and Moldova have deteriorated significantly since the start of the war in Ukraine and due to the desire of the government of Maia Sandu to join the country in the European Union.

A part of Moldova, Transnistria, is controlled by pro-Russia separatists who split at the end of a war in 1992, after the collapse of the USSR.