Moldova on Wednesday approved a bill to cancel a 1998 agreement with Russia on cultural centers, as ties continue to deteriorate over Moscow’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
In February, Moldova’s Foreign Ministry said it would begin the process of shutting down the Russian Center of Science and Culture, which opened in Chișinău in 2009, over a drone incursion.
Moldova’s cabinet of ministers said in a statement that the center was funded by Rossotrudnichestvo, a Russian state-funded cultural diplomacy agency under EU sanctions.
The cabinet stressed that Moldova does not have a cultural center of its own in Russia.
“The Russian Cultural Center was not cultural at all, it operated to undermine Moldova’s sovereignty,” Moldovan Culture Minister Cristian Jardan said.
Moldova has repeatedly accused Russia of trying to destabilize the country of 2.6 million under pro-EU President Maia Sandu.
Both Kyiv and Chișinău lodged bids to join the European Union after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The bill to cancel the agreement will now be submitted to Moldova’s parliament.
The Kremlin denounced the decision, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov accusing Moldova of “denying everything connected with our country to the detriment of a significant, if not greater, part of its population.”
“We can only express regret,” Peskov told reporters during a daily briefing.
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