Chisinau, March 29 (Infotag). The Moldovan Liberal Party has demanded from the country leadership to declare Russian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Moldova Nikolai Ryabov as persona non grata and, accordingly, to ask him out of Moldova, it was announced at the Liberal Party’s news conference held in Infotag today.

Party leader Mihai Ghimpu stated, in particular, that by his statements made in Chisinau on March 20, Ambassador Ryabov violated the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, according to which persons having the status of a diplomat must abide by the laws and regulations of the accrediting state, and may not interfere into the given states’ domestic affairs.

“Ryabov spoke out a number of ungrounded accusations against the Republic of Moldova. He also insulted severely the European Union and the United States. He thus demonstrated he is Russia’s advocate in the Transnistria question, and a supporter to Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov”, stated the LP Chairman.

In this connection, Ghimpu demanded to revise the Russian Federation’s status at the Transnistria negotiations. He believes Russia has to be deprived of its present guarantor status and to be made a conflicting side.

“Time has come for us to be more resolute in taking such kind of decisions”, Ghimpu said. “Russia must respect us, though we are much smaller and poorer a country. By the way, Moscow is now pressing on us in matters of gas price and exports of our farm products, so Mr. Ryabov’s expulsion should not complicate the bilateral relations so critically”.

Mihai Ghimpu called upon the Moldovan leadership to not let the Smirnov regime and the Russian Federation touch the Republic of Moldova’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.