Moldova detains 74 over alleged Russian plot to stir up unrest around key election

Authorities in Moldova said they had carried out 250 raids and detained dozens of people on Monday as part of an investigation into an alleged Russia-backed plan to incite "mass riots" and destabilise the country in the run-up to critical parliamentary elections.

The raids targeted more than 100 people and took place in multiple localities across the country, police said.

Seventy-four people were detained for up to 72 hours, said Victor Furtuna, Moldova's chief prosecutor from the Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases.

Moldova's police said that the unrest plot was "coordinated from the Russian Federation, through criminal elements."

Furtuna said that most of the suspects "systematically traveled" to Serbia, where they received training and that they were aged between 19 and 45 years old.

Moldovans will vote on Sunday to choose the new 101-seat legislature, in an election many view as a choice between the country’s continued path toward European Union membership or closer ties with Russia.

Online disinformation aimed at discrediting Moldova's pro-European government in the run-up to the vote.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu and her Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) are hoping to stay in power and keep Moldova — which is flanked by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the east — on its path towards European Union (EU) membership.

But ballots in the country have traditionally been the target of intense disinformation and destabilisation campaigns, including vote-buying and bribery schemes.

It means Moldova has been caught in the crossfire of an information war pitting EU membership against closer alignment with Russia.

Pro-Europeans fear the Kremlin's hybrid warfare techniques could skew the vote.

Pro-Russian campaign

A sophisticated pro-Russian disinformation campaign, dubbed Matryoshka, has ramped up its efforts to spread propaganda in Moldova. It aims to discredit its pro-European Union government as parliamentary elections loom, according to a study.

The transparency tool NewsGuard said that the operation promoted false claims that Moldovan President Maia Sandu embezzled $24 million (€20 million) and that she’s addicted to "psychotropic drugs."

It said that one campaign alone targeted Moldova with 39 made-up stories in three months since the elections were called in April this year, compared to zero the year before.

The Matryoshka campaign is a coordinated pro-Russian operation, known among fact-checkers for spreading false news reports in the style of legitimate media outlets.

And after last year’s presidential election, Maia Sandu denounced what she called an "assault on democracy and freedom" as she said criminal groups had bought Moldovan citizens' votes prior to a referendum on whether to enshrine seeking EU membership in the constitution.

Sandu claimed that "criminal entities" had the goal of buying 300,000 votes and that "the state institutions documented 150,000 people being paid to vote," as the justice system failed to do enough to prevent vote theft and corruption.