The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, stated in an interview published on Friday by Financial Times that his country thwarted an attempt by the deceased leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Evgeny Prigojin, to provoke an insurrection to remove him from power.
Maia Sandu at the EU summitPhoto: Lian Yi / Xinhua News / Profimedia
According to the president Maia Sandu, the Wagner group hatched that plan to destabilize his country at the beginning of the year, and currently Russia is using different methods to buy votes before a series of elections, especially the presidential ones that will take place next year in the Republic of Moldova , such as the introduction of contraband money or bank cards issued in Dubai into this country, cites Agerpres.
“The information we have is that it was a plan prepared by (Prigojin’s) team”, which aimed to provoke anti-government demonstrations that would degenerate into violence. “The situation is really dramatic and we have to protect ourselves”, says Maia Sandu, talking about the current situation.
European and American officials warned in February that Russia was planning to oust the pro-Western government of Maia Sandu, and in March authorities in Chisinau announced that they had arrested a member of the Wagner group and charged them with incitement. to the revolt.
“Russia is trying to increase the pressure on (the Republic of) Moldova. They tried with energy and failed. They tried to overthrow the government and failed. And now they are trying to massively interfere in our elections, using a lot of money”, says Maia Sandu.
She asked the European Union, in addition to the sanctions already imposed on the oligarch Ilan Şor, whose party was outlawed by the Chisinau authorities, to also sanction the companies connected to him or that he uses to introduce money into the country .
“We can’t play chess with the Russians if they wear boxing gloves”, Maia Sandu justified the measures against the pro-Russian opposition.
Local elections are taking place in the Republic of Moldova next month, and Maia Sandu’s party has emotions at this election in some areas, including the capital Chisinau. She claims that she has evidence that Russia will try in these elections to gain a political advance in the perspective of next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections in 2025.
The Moldovan secret services have detected at least 20 million euros of Russian funding that entered the country for political purposes, and the real amounts are probably higher, the president says.
“The tools they (the Russians) use to introduce money into the country are very diverse. I saw for a while that they were simply sending Moldovan (citizens) to Moscow by plane via Armenia. And these people each came back with 10,000 euros. And recently I saw that they bring cards, bank cards that were issued in Dubai (…), they simply distribute thousands of cards (…), bank cards to the people they want to bribe”, he continued Maia Sandu.
She asked European leaders gathered this week at the EU summit in the Spanish city of Granada to increase their vigilance against “illegal financing from Russia” passing through their jurisdictions to the Republic of Moldova.
