CHISINAU, November 7. /TASS/. Moldova’s authorities have resorted to lies and falsifications about opposition leaders in order to divert public attention from the economic disaster they have driven the country into, Moldova’s former President Igor Dodon said on Monday, commenting on media reports about his activity as the head of the Moldovan-Russian Business Union.

"These contracted reports are a mixture of lies, approximations and malevolent interpretations for the propaganda purposes meant to distract the public for a day from the catastrophe President Maia Snadu and the government formed by her Party of Action and Solidarity have plunged the country into," he told TASS.

Moldova’s Newsmaker media outlet on Monday released a story compiled by the RISE Moldova community of Moldovan and Romanian investigative journalists and Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Dossier Center alleging that cooperation between the Moldovan-Russian Business Union and Russia’s public organization Business Russia is geared towards stopping the West’s influence on Moldova.

Grass-roots protests have been held in Moldova since June demanding the resignation of President Maia Sandu and Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, who are blamed for the economic crisis and skyrocketing prices for food, gas, electricity, utility services, fuels, and the record-breaking inflation of 34% The current authorities have also been criticized for putting political pressure on the opposition and jingoist statements amid the situation in Ukraine.