CHISINAU: Moldova said on Wednesday it was sharply reducing the number of diplomats Russia can have in its capital Chisinau, citing years of “hostile actions” by Moscow and a media report about possible spying kit installed on the embassy's rooftop.
Relations between Russia and Moldova, once part of the Soviet Union, have reached new lows after President Maia Sandu strongly condemned Moscow's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine and accused Russia of plotting to overthrow her.
"We agreed on the need to limit the number of accredited diplomats from Russia, so that there are fewer people trying to destabilize the Republic of Moldova," Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said at a cabinet meeting.
Embassy personnel will be cut to 25 from more than 80, the foreign ministry said in a separate statement, bringing Russia's embassy in line with Moldova's diplomatic mission in Moscow.
Russia should implement the decision by Aug. 15, it said.
"For many years we have been the object of hostile Russian actions and policies. Many of them were made through the embassy," Popescu said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a weekly briefing that Moldova's decision would "not go unanswered," calling it "another step in the destruction of bilateral relations" between the countries.
The Kremlin said it regretted Moldova's decision and accused the country's leadership of encouraging "Russophobia".
"Unfortunately, Chisinau is deliberately driving our relations into a very miserable state," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Popescu, in his remarks, alluded to a media report by The Insider and television channel Jurnal TV about equipment installed on the Russian embassy's rooftop that could be used for spying.
The report prompted Moldova's foreign ministry to call in Russia's ambassador to provide an explanation. Zakharova said the spying accusation was "a fantasy which has nothing to do with reality."
Russia's ambassador to Moldova, Oleg Vasnetsov, said the embassy needed antennas because it was built at the end of the 1990s. "If telephony and internet worked well, there probably wouldn't be a need for constant upgrades," he said.
Moldova cuts Russian embassy staff over ‘hostile actions’
https://arab.news/9t9fe
Moldova cuts Russian embassy staff over ‘hostile actions’
- Embassy personnel will be cut to 25 from more than 80, the foreign ministry said
- Russia should implement the decision by Aug. 15
Venezuela says oil exports continue normally despite Trump blockade
- Trump warned “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America”
- Oil prices surged in early trading Wednesday in London on news of the blockade, which comes a week after US troops seized a sanctioned oil tanker
CARACAS: Venezuela struck a defiant note Wednesday, insisting that its crude oil exports were not impacted by US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a potentially crippling blockade.
Trump’s declaration on Tuesday marked a new escalation in his months-long campaign of military and economic pressure on Venezuela’s leftist authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, shrugged off the threat of more pain, insisting that it was proceeding with business as usual.
“Export operations for crude and byproducts continue normally. Oil tankers linked to PDVSA operations continue to sail with full security,” state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said.
Trump said Tuesday he was imposing “A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela.”
Referring to the heavy US military presence in the Caribbean — including the world’s largest aircraft carrier — he warned “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America.”
Oil prices surged in early trading Wednesday in London on news of the blockade, which comes a week after US troops seized a sanctioned oil tanker that had just left Venezuela with over 1 million barrels of crude.
Maduro held telephone talks with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss what he called the “escalation of threats” from Washington and their “implications for regional peace.”
Guterres’s spokesman said the UN chief was working to avoid “further escalation.”
- ‘We are not intimidated’ -
Venezuela’s economy, which has been in freefall over the last decade of increasingly hard-line rule by Maduro, relies heavily on petroleum exports.
Trump’s campaign appears aimed at undermining domestic support for Maduro but the Venezuelan military said Wednesday it was “not intimidated” by the threats.
The foreign minister of China, the main market for Venezuelan oil, defended Caracas in a phone call with his Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gi against the US “bullying.”
“China opposes all unilateral bullying and supports all countries in defending their sovereignty and national dignity,” he said.
Last week’s seizure of the M/T Skipper, in a dramatic raid involving US forces rappelling from a helicopter, marked a shift in Trump’s offensive against Maduro.
In August, the US leader ordered the biggest military deployment in the Caribbean Sea since the 1989 US invasion of Panama — purportedly to combat drug trafficking, but taking particular aim at Venezuela, a minnow in the global drug trade.
US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have left at least 95 people dead since.
Caracas believes that the anti-narcotics operations are a cover for a bid to topple Maduro and steal Venezuelan oil.
The escalating tensions have raised fears of a potential US intervention to dislodge Maduro.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum waded into the dispute on Wednesday, declaring that the United Nations was “nowhere to be seen” and asked that it step up to “prevent any bloodshed.”
- Oil lifeline -
The US blockade threatens major pain for Venezuela’s crumbling economy.
Venezuela has been under a US oil embargo since 2019, forcing it to sell its production on the black market at significantly lower prices, primarily to Asian countries.
The country produces one million barrels of oil per day, down from more than three million in the early 2000s.
Capital Economics analysts predicted that the blockade “would cut off a key lifeline for Venezuela’s economy” in the short term.
“The medium-term impact will hinge largely on how tensions with the US evolve — and what the US administration’s goals are in Venezuela.”
