pro-Russian

A group of ruling Liberal Democrat MPs plan to amend Moldova's constitution so that Romanian becomes the official language instead of Moldovan, as the law currently states.

The Liberal Democrats last Thursday said that they had collected the 34 signatures needed to submit the draft to the Constitutional Court for approval.

Russian state agents have committed serious abuses, including torture, in Crimea, the U.N. said Sept. 25, warning that the rights situation in the annexed peninsula had "significantly deteriorated" under Moscow's occupation.

Several cities in Moldova are bracing for demonstrations, as Socialist supporters of the pro-Russian President, Igor Dodon, get ready to take to the streets on Sunday.

They will protest against a decision of the Constitutional Court that annulled a referendum that would have allowed the head of state to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was forced to cancel a controversial visit to Moldova on Friday, after Romania reportedly denied his S7 plane access to its airspace, forcing it to land in Minsk, Belarus.  

The Russian official has been banned from traveling to the European Union since March 2014, when he backed the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Moldova's parliament adopted a declaration on Friday, asking Russia to withdraw its troops from the breakaway region of Transnistria where they have been deployed for 25 years.

A planned visit by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to both Moldova and the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria is causing more tension in Chisinau, where the pro-Western governmenthas vowed to block it.

Moldova's pro-Russian president Igor Dodon drew sharp criticism from his foes after receiving an official delegation of the North Korean Worker's Party on Saturday, which came to participate in the 20th anniversary festivities of the Moldovan Socialist Party.

Radev's press office announced the Putin invitation late on Monday evening, following a statement published on the Kremlin's website earlier in the day.

Moldova's pro-Russian President Igor Dodon has become the target of mockery from rival politicians and the media in Chisinau after Russian President Vladimir Putin made a quip about him in Saint Petersburg, where the Moldovan head of state participated in the Eurasian Economic Summit on Saturday.

Moldova's pro-Russian President, Igor Dodon, said he intends to ask the UN Security Council to officially acknowledge Moldova's neutral status, in a move to keep the former Soviet republic out of NATO and continue his policy of rapprochement with Russia.