MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. The United States has been trying to intervene in Moldova’s internal affairs ahead of the February 24 parliamentary elections, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary on Tuesday.
"Interference in the internal affairs of other countries has long become a familiar feature of Washington’s foreign policy. This is seen particularly well in Venezuela, where the United States in fact is trying to stage a government coup. Its occupation of part of Syrian territory after unsuccessful attempts to topple a legitimate government in Damascus belongs here, too. Apparently, a similar scenario is being prepared for Moldova," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
One gets such an impression in connection with the behavior of the US ambassador in Chisinau, Derek Hogan, the commentary runs. "As soon as he took office last autumn, Hogan became deeply involved in Moldova’s internal processes. He’s been making public statements to support some politicians against others and issuing recommendations as to how to hold parliamentary elections."
The Russian Foreign Ministry points out that the United States intends to judge if the elections are democratic enough "depending on who emerges the winner."
"If the winner is disliked by Washington, the Moldovans will be threatened with the disruption of ties with the West and even a rerun of Ukraine’s Maidan scenario. It is very undesirable to see Moldova become another test site for such irresponsible experiments, which have already ruined Iraq and Libya and plunged Syria and Ukraine into the turmoil of bloody conflicts," the commentary says.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is certain that the people of Moldova will make an independent choice in the forthcoming parliamentary elections "without instructions from Washington, which, as the sad experience of the past few decades shows, is guided exclusively by its own geopolitical ambitions and neglects the national interests of other countries."
Moldova’s parliamentary elections are due on February 24. Nearly all opinion polls point to the Socialists as the front-runners, who may well count on half of the votes of those who have made up their mind. The other two parties likely to get into parliament are the Democratic Party of Moldova, which controls the current government, and the election bloc Acum, formed by the oppositional right-of-center Action and Solidarity Party and the Dignity and Truth Platform.