MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/. Moldovan Ambassador to Russia Lilian Darii has been summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry due to the politically motivated persecution of Russian-language media outlets in the republic, and a protest was lodged with him, the Russian diplomatic agency said on its website.

"On October 3, Moldova’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Russian Federation L. Darii was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry. We lodged a strong protest with the Moldovan side over the continued politically motivated persecution of Russian-language media outlets in Moldova," the Russian foreign policy agency noted. It specified that yet another manifestation of such persecution was Moldova’s decision to expel Vitaly Denisov, head of the Sputnik Moldova news agency, on September 13.

The Russian Foreign Ministry informed Darii that as an asymmetric measure, entry to the Russian Federation was barred to a number of people directly related to restricting the freedom of speech and rights of Russian reporters in Moldova as well as igniting anti-Russian sentiment.