Moldovan police announced this Sunday, hours before an anti-government demonstration, that they had arrested members of a “Moscow-orchestrated network” aimed at destabilizing this small country of the former Soviet Union.
After Saturday night searches, 25 men were questioned by detectives and seven of them were detained, police chief Viorel Cernautean revealed at a news conference.
An agent managed to infiltrate the group, which was led by a Russian-Moldovan citizen, and stressed that “people had come from Russia with a very specific training role”.
The Moldovan authorities explained that they acted after “receiving information about the organization, by Russian special services, of destabilizing actions on Moldovan territory through demonstrations”.
Protests have taken place in recent months, mainly organized by the People’s Movement and supported by the Shor Party, which is considered “pro-Moscow” and led by Moldovan oligarch-in-exile Ilan Shor, who holds six seats out of 101 seats in the parliament of Moldova.
A new demonstration is scheduled for Sunday afternoon in the country’s capital, Chisinau.
Moldova, Ukraine’s neighbor and formerly in Russia’s sphere of influence, is now governed by authorities openly focused on European integration.
However, it has to do with the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria, next to the border with Ukraine, which declared independence after a short war that followed the fall of the USSR and is not recognized by any state, but is supported by Moscow, who has a military contingent stationed there.
The United States on Friday accused Russia of trying to destabilize the country of 2.6 million, with the aim of installing a government that has compromised with the Russian regime.
Source: DN
