​GOVERNMENT DECIDES TO REVOKE AMBASSADOR DUMITRU BRAGHIS FROM MOSCOW

At its ordinary working meeting on Wednesday, the Moldovan Government adopted a Resolution on revoking home the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Russian Federation, Dumitru Braghis. This decision was taken on the motion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, and it will enter into legal force upon the signature of a corresponding Decree by President Igor Dodon.

The Resolution did not disclose the reason(s) of the recall. The 4-year ambassadorial mandate of Dumitru Braghis, who was Moldovan Prime Minister in 2000-2001 and then a Member of Parliament, has not expired yet, for he was appointed to Moscow as recently as in December 2014.

Observers are offering a supposition that the decision to replace the Ambassador in Moscow was taken on the request of President Igor Dodon, who has proclaimed the re-establishment of good and active relations with Russia as one of his key strategic objectives. Last January 17-18, President Dodon paid an official visit to Moscow. But Ambassador Dumitru Braghis, who had been included into official Moldovan delegation, was not available in the meeting Igor Dodon held with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ambassador Braghis did not accompany the official delegation to a number of other meetings in Moscow, either.

Experts believe that the ambassadorial post at Moscow may be given to Andrei Neguta, who already held it in 2008-2012. Last December, he was officially presented as the Presidential Adviser on Foreign Policy Issues. It was exactly Neguta who accompanied President Dodon in all his meetings in Moscow.

Presently, Andrei Neguta is a Member of Parliament from the Party of Socialists. He has not yet resigned from the Parliament, though his parliamentary post is incompatible with the post of a presidential adviser. Last week he stated he is remaining a deputy because the head of state has not yet signed a presidential decree on appointing him adviser. It well may be that there will be no such appointment because he may go straight to Moscow as ambassador.

Last week, President Igor Dodon rejected three of the nine ambassadorial candidacies proposed by Prime Minister Pavel Filip for approval. The rest 6 were approved by the head of state so that Moldova could require an agreement from the destination countries. Among those six, there was no candidate for going to Russia.