"Such things earn a harsh response," he said to Novosti. The member of the State Duma, the Russian parliament's lower house, expects an urgent response from the Russian top, he added.
"The situation demands a forceful language of diplomatic notes," remarked Mr. Markelov after 17 Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh nationals were expelled from Moldova today.
Another two nationals of CIS countries have been detained for further investigation, reports the Moldovan presidential staff. It has specified the total number of detainees as nineteen-all Russians, Ukrainians and Kazakhs.
The detainees had on them cutting-edge equipment to gauge the public mood in Moldovan settlements-mainly the larger cities-before an upcoming parliamentary poll in that country, Andrej Slutu, Moldova's Interior Ministry chief of PR, said to Novosti. A search in one of the detainees' rented apartments revealed big cash-$373,000 and 77,500 Euro, and papers to testify to underhand finance accounting, he added.
Moldovan police assumes to have come on an underground chain aliens set up to promote a particular candidate-they have not specified the name.
Another six Russian nationals were recently expelled from Moldova. As Russia's Foreign Ministry has it, the move ran counter to the Moldovan democratic and open election cause. The Russians were accused of illegal activities on Moldova's pre-election campaign, the ministerial press and information department says in a statement.
The State Duma passed today a statement to call for a response to Moldova as its authorities are out to bring developments round Transdniestria to an edge. If Moldova goes on with the blockade of its breakaway republic, and works on to destabilize the situation, Duma members deem it necessary to consider prospects for fuel and energy exports to Moldova at world prices, Transdniestria being the only exception.
