Russia Is Plotting to Overthrow the Government of Moldova, President Warns

Russian agents are planning to violently overthrow Moldova’s pro-European government, Moldova’s president told journalists on Monday.

President Maia Sandu said in a televised briefing that Russia wanted to use proxy forces to capture government buildings, take hostages, and whip up street violence, in order to topple the government and turn it away from the European Union and towards Moscow.

The accusation comes a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly warned that Ukraine had intercepted secret Russian plans to “destroy” Moldova, where the breakaway republic of Transnistria has been occupied by Russian forces since 1991.

“The plan for the next period involves actions with the involvement of diversionists with military training, camouflaged in civilian clothes, who will undertake violent actions, attack some state buildings, and even take hostages,” Sandu said at a briefing for local media, according to a translation by the Associated Press.

“The purpose of these actions is to overthrow the constitutional order, to change the legitimate power from Chisinau to an illegitimate one,” Sandu said, “which would put our country at the disposal of Russia, in order to stop the European integration process.”

Between October and December, Sandu said, the Moldovan security services had investigated, “several cases of organised criminal elements and stopped attempts at violence.”

With 2.6 million people and the lowest GDP in Europe, Moldova has nervously watched the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine by Russian forces because of the presence of thousands of Russian troops and proxy forces deployed in Transnistria between Moldova and the border with Ukraine. Moldova’s government has accused Russia of sending cruise missiles and missiles through its territory to target Ukraine, the latest incident just last Friday.

Sandu told reporters that two pro-Russian oligarchs, Ilan Shor and Vladimir Plahotniuc, were supporting the plot and that Shor’s pro-Russia political party had been behind last year’s demonstrations over high energy prices related to the war in Ukraine. 

Last week during a visit to Brussels, Zelenskyy told EU officials that Ukrainian intelligence had uncovered a plot to seize Moldova similar to the takeover of Crimea in 2014.

“We have intercepted the plan of the destruction of Moldova by the Russian intelligence,” Zelenskyy said. He claimed to have evidence showing “who, when and how” the plan would “break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova.”

Last week, Moldova’s government resigned over internal political pressure that the president linked to Russia. Sandu responded by appointing Dorin Recean, a strong supporter of EU membership, to the prime minister post. Moldova was granted EU candidate status last June, much to the Kremlin's apparent dismay.