MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. The Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Sergey Lebedev, expressed the hope on Tuesday that Moldova will stay a CIS member, as he cautioned the republic against a potential exit that he said may cause "extremely negative" consequences.

"So far, [Chisinau] has announced that it will withdraw from the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS. <…> We very much hope that sober-thinking politicians and statesmen in Moldova will ensure Moldova’s continued membership of the Commonwealth," the CIS chief said. Otherwise, he warned, "Moldova will certainly face extremely negative consequences."

"I have repeatedly said that Russia and the other CIS member countries have a solid economic, scientific and industrial potential, and we can survive without Moldova," he noted. "Let’s believe that common sense will prevail," he added.

According to the CIS secretary general, some politicians have long been threatening to leave the CIS. However, Lebedev warned, a potential exit "would harm Moldova itself and Moldova’s people" over Chisinau’s ties with the other CIS members which he said were "too close."

Chisinau’s stance toward the CIS began to shift radically after Maia Sandu won the 2020 presidential election. To date, she has not attended a single CIS summit. This year, Moldova sharpened its critical rhetoric aimed at the CIS, with Foreign Minister Nicolae Popescu launching the denunciation of a number of agreements signed under the intergovernmental organization’s aegis.