Russia expels three Moldovan diplomats in tit-for-tat retaliatory move, Foreign Ministry says

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia is expelling three Moldovan diplomats in response to Chisinau throwing out three of its own diplomats, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Moldova expelled the Russian diplomats on Monday after accusing Moscow’s embassy in Chisinau of engineering the escape of a pro-Kremlin lawmaker to prevent him being jailed over illegal political funding.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Moldova’s envoy, Lilian Darii, to protest Chisinau’s decision to expel Moscow’s diplomats, and had handed him a note declaring three employees of Moldova’s embassy in Russia “persona non grata.”

The ministry said its own embassy in Moldova acted in strict compliance with international conventions on diplomacy and that “any attempt to accuse the Russian diplomatic mission of interfering in Moldova’s internal affairs have no grounds.”

The pro-European government in Moldova, a former Soviet republic, has repeatedly accused Russia of meddling in its domestic politics, something Moscow denies doing.

The latest diplomatic scuffle centres around Alexander Nesterovschii, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker who was found guilty of illegally channelling money to a pro-Russian party associated with fugitive businessman Ilan Shor.

Moldova accused Russia of organising Nesterovschii’s escape last month, shortly before he was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in jail. Its security service released video which it said showed him entering the Russian embassy in Chisinau.

The Russian ambassador to Moldova, Oleg Ozerov, has said the accusation of meddling is unfounded and unsubstantiated.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou;Editing by Andrew Osborn)