Communist Deputy Alexandru Ciugureanu lashed on Thursday at the Christian Democratic Popular Party (PPCD) for unauthorised daily pickets at the Russian Embassy in Chisinau. Ciugureanu described the picket there as "a farce of bad taste," and asked prosecutors to sanction picketers. The Communist lawmaker also noted that a friend of his - a member of the Russian State Duma - informed him that a Transnistrian committee had asked the agreement of the Moscow City Hall to picket the Moldovan Embassy in Moscow, and that the Transnistrians would not follow the example of Christian Democrats. In reply, PPCD Deputy Vlad Cubreacov said the picket is a peaceful manifestation that is supervised and fits the European Convention of Human Rights. Cubreacov noted that PPCD lawmakers have proposed a draft decision on foreign military presence in Moldova, but the Communist majority had turned down this initiative. According to Cubreacov, the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation in Chisinau has refused to take part in a dialogue with PPCD faction. Admiral Yuri Zubakov, Russian Ambassador to Moldova, asked Moldovan law enforcement agencies to disperse the protestors and declined from meetings with PPCD lawmakers. The picket is a response to this attitude, Cubreacov specified. PPCD members and supporters have picketed the Russian Embassy starting September 29. They urge Moscow to respect the commitments it has assumed at the OSCE interministerial meeting in Porto and to withdraw its military presence from Transnistria by the end of 2003. Russia had failed to respect the December 31, 2002 deadline for withdrawal of its troops and ammunition in Transnistria despite a decision of the OSCE summit in Istanbul, in 1999, and an OSCE ministerial meeting in Porto established the new deadline, December 31, 2003.