Moldova's declaration of June 28 as the “Day of Soviet Occupation" is a "sacrilege” and a "planned political campaign against Russian-Moldovan cooperation," the Foreign Ministry said.
The occupation claims are “pseudo-historical,” and acting Moldovan President Mihai Ghimpu is trying to divert attention from the "real problems of modern Moldova," the ministry said in a statement Friday.
Moldovan Communists, who control 43 percent of seats in the parliament, promised Friday to challenge Ghimpu's decision in the Constitutional Court, claiming that he overstepped the limits of his power, RIA-Novosti reported.
Ghimpu made June 28 a national day of mourning in a decree issued Thursday. The decree also demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from Moldova's breakaway Transdnestr province.
Moldova was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and restored to independence in 1991. It has retained strong ties with Russia but tried to execute a foreign-policy turn toward the European Union after Ghimpu came to power last year.
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