Moldova Expels 2 Foreigners Caught in Plot Carrying Out ‘Subversive Actions’

Moldova Expels 2 Foreigners Caught in Plot Carrying Out ‘Subversive Actions’
Holding signs, people take part in a protest against the Moldovan Government and their pro-EU President in Chisinau on Feb. 19, 2023. A couple of thousands of protesters gathered downtown answering the call made by the Russia-friendly "ȘOR" Party, as tension run high in pro-Western Moldova after allegations of Moscow's attempts to destabilise the country came to light last week. Facing multiple crises aggravated by Russia's war in Ukraine, the impoverished former Soviet republic of 2.6 million people wedged between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova is already wrestling with an energy crisis prompted by supply cuts from Russia's targeting of Ukraine's energy infrastructure, and tensions have flared up due to missile overflights connected to the war in Ukraine. ELENA COVALENCO/AFP via Getty Images
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CHISINAU, Moldova—Moldova’s intelligence agency said Monday that two foreign nationals who posed as tourists have been expelled from the country and banned from returning for 10 years after they were caught carrying out “subversive actions” to destabilize Moldova.

The Intelligence and Security Service, SIS, said in a statement that the pair were trained in data and information gathering “for the implementation of a plan to destabilize the internal situation in the country,” to provoke what it described as “violent change” to Moldova’s constitutional order.

The SIS did not state when the foreign nationals arrived in Moldova, which countries they were from, or for whom they were allegedly working.

The agency said the pair carried out subversive actions that included investigating “various locations near government offices and critical infrastructure,” and that they were coordinated “from the shadows by a group of individuals affiliated with a conspiratorial network of overseas political technology and social engineering experts.”

The SIS added that the foreign nationals were actively monitoring and documenting social and political processes in Moldova, including protests it said were “organized in the capital by certain political forces.”

Moldova's President Maia Sandu speaks to the media after casting her vote in a snap parliamentary election, in Chisinau, Moldova, on July 11, 2021. Moldovan citizens vote in a key snap parliamentary election that could decide whether the former Soviet republic fully embraces pro-Western reform or prolongs a political impasse with strong Russian influence. (AP Photo/Aurel Obreja)
Moldova's President Maia Sandu speaks to the media after casting her vote in a snap parliamentary election, in Chisinau, Moldova, on July 11, 2021. Moldovan citizens vote in a key snap parliamentary election that could decide whether the former Soviet republic fully embraces pro-Western reform or prolongs a political impasse with strong Russian influence. AP Photo/Aurel Obreja

Last Sunday, several thousand anti-government protesters rallied in the capital, Chisinau, to demand the new government fully cover energy bills amid a cost-of-living crisis. They also demanded that pro-Western President Maia Sandu step down.

The protest was organized by a recently formed group called “Movement for the People” and supported by members of Moldova’s Kremlin-friendly ȘOR Party—lead by Ilan Mironovich Șor (Shor) in its early days as part of the socio-political movement “Equality”—which holds six seats in the former Soviet republic’s 101-seat legislature.
The SIS statement Monday also came after Sandu outlined on Feb. 13 what she claimed was an alleged plot by Moscow to overthrow the government in order to put the nation “at the disposal of Russia” and to derail it from its course to one day join the European Union.

“Through violent actions, masked under protests of the so-called opposition, the change of power in Chisinau would be forced,” she said. “In carrying out the plan, the authors rely on several internal forces, but especially on criminal groups such as the Shor formation and all of its derivatives.”

Sandu said that the purported Kremlin plot envisioned attacks on government buildings, hostage-takings, and other violent actions by groups of saboteurs. The Kremlin has rejected those claims.

In June, Moldova, a country of about 2.6 million people, was granted EU candidate status, the same day as Ukraine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.