MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Moldova's decision to expel an employee of the Russian Embassy over the opening of polling stations for the Russian presidential election in Transnistria is wrong, the head of Moldova’s autonomous Gagauzia region, Yevgenia Gutsul, told Izvestia.

"It is wrong to punish representatives of the Russian Embassy for the fact that, in the opinion of the current government, more polling stations were opened than should have been," she said.

Gutsul pointed out that Russian citizens living abroad have the right to vote, including in Moldova and Transnistria. She also opined that Moldovan citizens around the world should have the opportunity to vote in their country's elections by mail. She said that a law was being considered that would provide such an opportunity only for Moldovans in the US and Canada.

On March 19, the Moldovan Foreign Ministry protested to Russian ambassador to Chisinau Oleg Vasnetsov about the opening of polling stations for voting in the Russian presidential election on the territory of Transnistria. For the same reason, a Russian embassy employee was declared persona non grata. Later, Vasnetsov told TASS that the Moldovan Foreign Ministry had informed him that it did not want to see the Russian delegation at the session of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).