Russia ‘supporting protests’
United States intelligence officials have determined that people with ties to Russian intelligence are planning to stage protests in hopes of toppling the Moldovan government, according to the White House.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the intelligence showed that actors, some connected with Russian intelligence, were seeking to stage and use protests in Moldova as a basis to foment an insurrection against the country’s new pro-Western government.
Kirby said the intelligence showed that another set of Russian actors would provide training and help to manufacture demonstrations in Moldova, which was granted European Union candidate status in June on the same day as Ukraine, its war-torn neighbour.
‘‘As Moldova continues to integrate with Europe, we believe Russia is pursuing options to weaken the Moldovan Government, probably with the eventual goal of seeing a more Russianfriendly administration,’’ he said.
Kirby also pointed to recent efforts by Russia that he said were intended to sow disinformation about Moldova’s overall stability. He pointed specifically to the Russian Ministry of Defence’s claim last month that Ukraine was planning to invade Transnistria, Moldova’s Moscowbacked separatist region.
In recent weeks, several antigovernment
protests have been held in the capital, Chisinau, organised by a group calling itself Movement for the People, and supported by members of Moldova’s Russia-friendly Shor Party, which holds six seats in the country’s 101-seat legislature. Another protest by the group is planned for today.
The party’s leader, Ilan Shor, is a Moldovan oligarch currently in exile in Israel. He is named on a US State Department sanctions list as working for Russian interests. Britain also added Shor to a sanctions list in December.
Moldova’s anti-corruption agency said its officers searched the vehicles of ‘‘couriers’’ for the Shor Party this week, and seized more than €150,000 (NZ$260,500), in a case of alleged illegal party financing by an organised criminal group. The money, in at least two different currencies, was earmarked to ‘‘pay for the transport and remunerate people who come to the protests organised by the party’’, the agency said.
The Shor Party also organised anti-government protests last year, which rocked Moldova as it struggled to manage a severe energy crisis after Moscow slashed natural gas supplies. Around the same time, Moldova’s government asked the country’s Constitutional Court to declare the Shor Party illegal, while anticorruption prosecutors alleged that the protests were partly financed with Russian money.
The US has provided US$265 million (NZ$432m) in emergency support to Moldova since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to help it deal with economic, energy and humanitarian crises caused by the war. The Biden Administration has asked Congress to approve an additional US$300m (NZ$489m).