All news

Russia hammering out sanctions against those who disrupted top official’s visit to Moldova

"Our sanctions will be measured and targeted," Deputy Prime Minster Dmitry Rogozin said

MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. Russia is preparing retaliatory sanctions against people who decided to ban the Russian plane which carried Russian Deputy Prime Minster Dmitry Rogozin from entering Moldova and thus disrupted his visit to this country, Rogozin said on Saturday in an interview, an extract from which was broadcasted on the Russia 24 TV channel.

He explained his sharp statement in Twitter on the future response made right after the incident a normal reaction of any man to the insult of people (passengers of the plane, including women and children).

"There will be a response, of course. It, of course, will not be as emotional as the first reaction. We will determine who was behind these decisions in Chisinau, Bucharest, Budapest and Brussels. We will determine the people who took these decisions. Our sanctions will be measured and targeted," he said.

Answering to the question on the terms of retaliatory measures, Rogozin stressed that sanctions would be applied "when there will be suitable time and place." He added that Russia "knows how to respond."

The Russian deputy prime minister also told about Moldovan President Igor Dodon’s reaction, saying that Dodon regarded the situation with banning the passage for the plane with the Russian delegation on board as a "provocation against him." "He formally acted as the inviting side, he carried certain responsibility, he had his own agreements with the government of his country. This is like a slap in the face," the Russian deputy prime minister concluded.

Rogozin’s visit to Moldova on Friday was disrupted by Romania’s rejection to allow the Russian S7 plane carrying a Russian delegation on board to pass. The regular flight Moscow-Chisinau was banned to enter Romania’s airspace by the air-traffic management service on the pretext of a presence of a "sanctioned person" on board. The plane landed in Minsk, after which the deputy prime minister flew to Moscow from the Belarusian capital by Aeroflot.