Moldova summoned Russia’s ambassador after Moscow said it would open polling stations for Russian presidential elections in the breakaway Transnistrian region without its consent.
Moldova has blasted Moscow’s decision to open six polling stations in Transnistria ahead of March 15-17 presidential elections in Russia, violating Moldovan rules.
Transnistria is not recognized internationally as a sovereign state, even by Russia, though some 200,000 citizens have Russian citizenship, according to local pro-Russian authorities.
The separatists, however, have their own president, government, parliament and military.
„The State of the Republic of Moldova acts where it can control the environment and accordingly we will not admit violations on the territory controlled by the constitutional authorities,” Dorin Recean, Moldovan prime minister, told journalists after meeting the ambassador Oleg Vasnetsov.
The Russian diplomat said Moscow would respect the ‘legal’ right to vote of all Russian citizens.
On Monday, local media reported that Russia will open six polling stations in the Transnistria region and people with expired or Soviet-era passports able to vote.
„These ballots were most certainly printed right there (in Transnistria) to avoid passing through a border crossing point,” deputy Prime Minister Oleg Serebrian said on Wednesday ahead of a cabinet meeting.
„It’s hard to say how they would have been brought across the border. Moldova’s borders are controlled and there is no legal way to bring or remove them legally,” he added.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, fears have grown in Moldova that the country will also be invaded by Russia.
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