 On December 15, 1917, the Council proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic, as part of the Russian Republic, then formed the government of Moldavia.With the approval of the Allies and the Russian White general Dmitry Shcherbachev, commander-in-chief of the Russian forces on the Romanian Front, on January 26, 1918, Romanian troops entered Bessarabia, ostensibly as a temporary measure to maintain security, which had deteriorated due to large numbers of deserters from the Russian Army.While Romanian historiography generally asserts the intervention was done on the request of Sfatul Țării, the presence of the Romanian army in Bessarabia was protested by some of the republic's leaders, notably Ion Inculeț, president of "Sfatul Țării" and Pantelimon Erhan, head of the provisional Moldavian executive protesting against it.