Chisinau, March 12 (AFP\/APP): Moldovan police said Sunday they had arrested members of a network they suspected of being orchestrated by Moscow in a bid to destabilise the small ex-Soviet nation as an anti-government protest kicked off.<\/p>\n
After searches on Saturday night, 25 men were questioned and seven of them detained, police chief Viorel Cernauteanu told media.<\/p>\n
An agent managed to infiltrate the group led by a Moldovan-Russian, he said, adding that the prosecution had recorded 10 hours of video and audio.<\/p>\n
“People came from Russia with a very specific training role,” the official added.<\/p>\n
The Moldovan authorities said they acted after “receiving information on the organisation by Russian special services of destabilising actions on our territory via demonstrations”.<\/p>\n
The party of fugitive pro-Russian oligarch Ilhan Shor has again mobilised people in recent weeks against the pro-European government, amid heightened tensions between Moscow and Chisinau.<\/p>\n
He has organised several rallies for which he is suspected of paying participants.<\/p>\n
– ‘We came peacefully’ –<\/p>\n
Scuffles broke out at the protest in Chisinau on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The demonstrators gathered in front of parliament and tried to reach the seat of government a few hundred metres away, but police stopped them.<\/p>\n
Police said they held 54 protesters, including 21 minors, “with suspicious behaviour and prohibited items” for identification and checks.<\/p>\n
Bomb scares caused disruption at Chisinau airport in the morning, while border controls had been tightened ahead of the rally.<\/p>\n
A total of 182 foreigners were banned from entering the country during the week, including “a possible member” of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, the police said.<\/p>\n
The slogan of the protest was “We ask the government to pay our bills”.<\/p>\n
Participants spoke of the high cost of living and blamed the government and President Maia Sandu for not doing enough to help them or listening to their complaints.<\/p>\n
“Do you know how many times police stopped us on the way here? We’re supposed to be a democracy. We came here peacefully, we don’t have knives and bombs”, one protester told AFP.<\/p>\n
– ‘Russian plans’ –<\/p>\n
People shouted “Down with the dictatorship” and “Down with Maia Sandu”.<\/p>\n
The organisers also accused Sandu of trying to drag Moldova into the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The White House on Friday accused Russia of seeking to destabilise the Romanian-speaking country of 2.6 million people bordering Ukraine in order to install a pro-Russian government.<\/p>\n
The United States said it had stepped up information sharing with Moldovan leaders “so they can investigate further” and “thwart Russian plans”.<\/p>\n
Moldova, formerly part of Russia’s sphere of influence, is now governed by authorities who are firmly focused on European integration.<\/p>\n
However, Chisinau has to deal with the separatist region of Transnistria, where the authorities called Thursday on the United Nations to investigate a plan to attack several top officials blamed on Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s SBU security service immediately denounced the allegations as a “provocation orchestrated by the Kremlin”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chisinau, March 12 (AFP\/APP): Moldovan police said Sunday they had arrested members of a network they suspected of being orchestrated by Moscow in a bid to destabilise the small ex-Soviet nation as an anti-government protest kicked off. After searches on Saturday night, 25 men were […]<\/p>\n
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