CHISINAU, August 5. /TASS/. Moldavan President Igor Dodon and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin held a meeting in Tehran to discuss measures for preventing the further deterioration of bilateral relations. The Moldavan president told TASS by phone that the Transnistrian issue had also been touched upon.
"We discussed the measures that need to be taken to prevent any further deterioration in bilateral relations following the recent decision made by the [Moldavan] government [to declare Rogozin persona non grata - TASS], as well as the situation surrounding Transnistria," Dodon said.
"It was a constructive meeting," the Moldovan president said. "I asked our Russian counterparts to refrain from taking retaliatory steps and imposing sanctions which could damage the interests of companies and ordinary citizens," he noted.
"I would like to stress that I intend to continue cooperating with Dmitry Olegovich [Rogozin], who is the Russian President’s Special Representative for Transnistria and a co-chairman of the Russian-Moldovan intergovernmental commission," he added.
Dodon also said that the Moldavan government’s actions against Rogozin indicated its unwillingness to cooperate with Moscow in order to solve pressing issues that the country’s companies and citizens working in Russia had been facing.
"This position is unacceptable as polls show that more than 65% of Moldova’s citizens consider Russia to be a friendly state," Dodon said.
"As president, I intend to defend the interests of the Moldovan people and use every legal tool to counter the ruling party’s attempts to destroy our relations with Russia, even by boycotting bills passed by the parliament," Dodon concluded.