CHISINAU, June 28. /TASS/. The Moldovan authorities’ policy of severing ties with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will have disastrous consequences, said Igor Dodon, the country’s former president and leader of the opposition Party of Socialists.

"Moldova’s withdrawal from the CIS - be it its parliamentary platform or other agreements - is one of the strategic foreign policy mistakes of the country’s current authorities. [Parliament President] Grosu and other officials should think about the interests of our people rather than ways to please their foreign patrons. This will have disastrous consequences for our manufacturers and citizens," Dodon pointed out in a video address posted on his Telegram channel.

Igor Grosu, Moldovan Parliament President and leader of the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity, announced earlier that Moldova had started the process of withdrawal from the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. He added, however, that the country’s authorities were selective about which CIS agreements to denounce and planned to maintain those beneficial to the country’s economy.

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. However, Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization Dumitru Alaiba says that the country should maintain the agreements that benefit its economy. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier slammed Chisinau’s policy as hypocritical.