The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of three employees of the Moldovan embassy in Russia in response to the declaration of persona non grata of three Russian diplomats.
Chisinau expelled the three Russian embassy staff on 31 March 2025, accusing Russia of helping pro-Russian MP Alexander Nesterovsky. According to the head of Moldova’s Information and Security Service (Sib), Alexandru Mustjatse, Russian diplomats took Nesterovsky to unrecognised Transnistria the day before the trial.
“We have confirmed information that Russia helped Alexander Nesterovsky to avoid detention. These actions-part of the mechanism of hybrid aggression against Moldova, which the intelligence service has repeatedly warned about,” Mustjatse said. The Russian embassy in Moldova called the words of the Sib head “unsubstantiated insinuations”.
Sib representatives showed a video showing a man who looks like Nesterovski entering the Russian embassy on the evening of 18 March, and on 19 March a car with Russian diplomatic plates leaving the embassy and then entering Transnistria.
Alexandru Nesterovski is a member of the Moldovan parliament. On 19 March 2025, a court in Chisinau sentenced him in absentia to 12 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 lei ($27,000) for passive corruption and creating conditions for illegal party financing. According to the prosecutor’s office, he received at least $35,000 from fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor for switching from the Party of Socialists to the Renaissance party.
In addition, the investigation claims, Nesterovski persuaded former MP Arina Spetaru to create a pro-European party that would act in favour of Shor and handed her 50,000 dollars and 100,000 lei (5.4 thousand dollars). The case against him was filed in 2023. A few hours before the court hearing, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Nesterovskiy Russian citizenship because of his “persecution” in Moldova.