Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Moldovan statements regarding Moscow’s attempts to control Chisinau as unfounded

MOSCOW, January 27 – RIA Novosti. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Infrastructure Minister Andrey Spin’s statement about Moscow’s attempt to keep Chisinau under propaganda control was unfounded.

Earlier, Spinu claimed that Russia was trying to control Chisinau and used propaganda for this. According to him, Chisinau used to be in the sphere of Moscow’s interests, and now the influence of the Russian Federation on the republic is allegedly “sharpened” in different areas.

“As for Deputy Prime Minister Spinu’s statement about Russia’s desire to control Chisinau, it seems to me that this is generally unfounded. Russia, unlike the West, has never intended to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and, in particular, to the processes in these countries. Respecting Moldova advocated the development of interaction on the basis of mutual benefit, and today the Moldovan authorities are under even greater control of the United States and the European Union, against which these guidelines are imposed on them and very rudely imposed,” he said during a briefing.

A number of Russian media outlets in Moldova have already been banned, the Moldova Information and Security Service has blocked the Sputnik Moldova website since February 26, 2022, and the broadcast of the agency’s station since March 7. The Russian Embassy in Chisinau condemned the decision of the Moldovan authorities to block the operation of the Sputnik Moldova website, and made the accusations against the organization biased and politicized.

In addition, Moldova suspended the license of the opposition and leading Russian-language broadcasters Primul, RTR Moldova, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, TV6, Orhei TV channels in Moldova, which allegedly reported maliciously about events in the country and Ukraine. This decision is seen as a risk of disinformation. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow viewed Chisinau’s decision as an act of political censorship. The Russian Foreign Ministry added that such actions violate the principle of media pluralism and are a gross violation of freedom of access to information, and Moscow describes it as a “cynical violation of the rights of national minorities”.