Moldovan police launch sweeping raids over alleged Russian meddling

Audio By Carbonatix

By Dan Peleschuk

KYIV (Reuters) -Moldova carried out more than 200 raids over alleged Russian-backed efforts to destabilise the country ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election, as President Maida Sandu warned Moscow was spending hundreds of millions of euros to sway the vote.

The high-stakes poll could be pivotal for Moldova’s bid to join the European Union, a process it says Moscow is attempting to derail through tactics like disinformation, organising mass riots, and vote-buying.

The national police said investigators and security forces had conducted 250 searches against more than 100 people, but did not specify any of the targets’ political affiliations.

“The searches are related to a criminal case into the preparation of mass riots and destabilisation, which were coordinated from the Russian Federation through criminal elements,” it said in a statement.

Russia has denied interfering in Moldova’s domestic affairs and says that Sandu’s government is stoking anti-Russian sentiment to win votes.

At a briefing in the capital Chisinau, security officials said Moldovan citizens were being trained in Serbia on protest tactics by Russian intelligence operatives. Authorities arrested 74 people as a result of the searches, they said.

FORMER PRESIDENT SAYS RAIDS ARE TO ‘SILENCE US’

The co-leader of Moldova’s pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc, which is expected to pose a stiff challenge to the ruling pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity, had earlier said some members had been targeted in the raids.

“The criminal PAS regime is trying to intimidate us, frighten the people, and silence us,” Igor Dodon, a former president, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Sandu, who has described Sunday’s vote as the “most consequential election” in Moldova’s history, has accused Moscow of waging a subversive campaign to sway the poll to keep Chisinau within its orbit.

Last month, fugitive tycoon Ilan Shor, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and EU as an alleged Russian agent, openly offered Moldovans monthly payments of $3,000 to join anti-government protests.

In a video address on Monday, Sandu warned Moldova’s sovereignty was “in danger” and that Russian meddling would have far-reaching consequences for Europe.

“The Kremlin is pouring hundreds of millions of euros to buy hundreds of thousands of votes on both banks of the Nistru river and abroad,” she said.

“People are intoxicated daily with lies. Hundreds of individuals are paid to provoke disorder, violence, and spread fear.”

(Reporting by Alexander Tanas and Dan Peleschuk; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Ros Russell)