Moscow is expelling a Moldovan diplomat and banning the entry of several Moldovan officials in retaliation after Chisinau declared a Russian Embassy staffer persona non grata.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on April 25 that Moldovan Ambassador Lilian Darii was summoned and handed a note of protest "over Chisinau's continuing unfriendly steps toward Russia, regular anti-Russian statements," as well as its joining the European Union's sanctions regime against Moscow over the Ukraine war, the statement said.
Russia and many European countries have engaged in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions since the full-scale invasion was launched on February 24, 2022. Dozens of diplomats in Moscow and other capitals around the continent have been forced to leave their posts, including later on April 25 when Sweden said it was expelling five Russian diplomats.
Moldova last week expelled an employee of the Russian Embassy as relations between Chisinau and Moscow continued to deteriorate amid the Kremlin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that has raised fears the tiny state sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania could be Russia's next target.
On April 17, Moldova barred entry to a Russian delegation led by Tatarstan's leader Rustam Minnikhanov that had landed in Chisinau to bolster support for the pro-Moscow leader of an autonomous Moldovan territory.
Two days later, Moldova's Foreign Ministry summoned Russian envoy Oleg Vasnetsov and informed him that a Russian diplomat had been declared persona non grata over his behavior at the airport during Minnikhanov's failed attempt to enter Moldova.
The names of the expelled diplomat and the Moldovan officials banned from entering Russia were not made public.
But Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Moscow expelled Moldova's consul and banned the entry of Interior Minister Ana Revenco and three lawmakers from the ruling Action and Solidarity Party -- Oazu Nantoi, Olesea Stamate, and Lilian Carp.
Under pro-Western President Maia Sandu, who came to power in late 2020 after defeating Moscow-backed incumbent Igor Dodon, Moldova has tried to distance itself from Russia while making steps toward integration with the EU.
The 27-member bloc last year extended an official invitation to Moldova and Ukraine to start membership negotiations.
The country of 2.7 million is one of Europe's poorest states.
A former Romanian province, Moldova was annexed by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II and declared its independence in 1991 amid the collapse of the U.S.S.R.
Moscow, however, has retained huge influence in the ex-Soviet republic, where it still keeps more than 1,200 troops in the breakaway territory of Transdniester.
Separately, Sweden said on April 25 that it had summoned Russian Ambassador Viktor Tatarintsev to inform him that five employees of the Russian Embassy were being forced to leave for "activities on our territory...inconsistent with their diplomatic status,"
No further details were immediately available.
A year ago Sweden expelled three Russian diplomats on similar grounds.
Earlier this month, Norway sent 15 Russian diplomats packing saying they were intelligence officers operating under the cover of diplomatic positions.