pro-Russian

The US ambassador to Chisinau, James Pettit, said on Sunday that Russian propaganda and internal political control over broadcasters are endangering freedom of the media in Moldova.

A survey published this week by the Institute of Marketing and Surveys suggests that Moldovan citizens are again more in favour of their country joining the EU than the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union, a shift in opinion from the start of this year.

Moldova's pro-Russian President, Igor Dodon, and the country's ruling pro-European Democratic Party are at odds once again over a law designed to curb Russian broadcast propaganda, which parliament adopted on Thursday.

Dodon, who has opposed the bill since it was introduced to parliament by the Democratic Party leader Vladimir Plahotniuc, says he will not promulgate it.

Moldovan authorities on Tuesday prevented Marina Safronova, producer for Russia's Vserossiyskaya Gosudarstvennaya Televizionnaya I Radioveshchatelnaya Kompaniya, VGTRK, which is affiliated to state-owned Russia-24 TV - and Zvezda TV channel reporter Alexei Samolyotov - from entering the country.

A NATO office will open shortly in the former Soviet republic of Moldova, it was announced, after Moldova's pro-Western Prime Minister Pavel Filip met NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.

Both sides said was agreed that Moldova will remain militarily neutral, according to its constitution, but Filip underlined that it wants to strengthen its relationship with NATO.

Moldova's new Minister of Defence, Eugen Sturza, says he intends to develop and modernise Moldova's military, in a move that risks worsening tension between Chisinau and Moscow.

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday approved a draft bill signed by 35 MPs to amend the law so that the official language is classified as Romanian instead of Moldovan.

The draft was initiated two weeks ago by a small group of MPs from Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova and signed by other pro-European deputies in parliament.

Moldova's government appointed a new defence minister on Tuesday after a lengthy row over the post between the pro-European, Democratic Party-led cabinet and pro-Russian President Igor Dodon.

Eugen Sturza, 32, was sworn in at a ceremony at the presidential palace led by parliament speaker Andrian Candu, acting as interim president while Dodon was briefly suspended.

The UN General Assembly is to discuss by the end of October Chisinau's request for Moscow's forces to leave Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway area of eastern Moldova, as the Russian troops continue manoeuvres in the separatist region.

Moldova's Constitutional Court said in its decision on Tuesday  there are "circumstances justifying the initiation by the Parliament of the procedure of suspension of the president", opening the door for the suspension of Dodon.

The Constitutional Court deemed that his failure to approve the appointment of a new defence minister meant he had fallen short of his constitutional duties.