(Bloomberg) -- Two Moldovan civil servants have been detained in Chisinau, the country’s capital, on charges of treason and conspiracy on behalf of a foreign state following raids on parliament, local prosecutors said in a statement.
Authorities are not naming the suspects, who have been described as an employee of the secretariat of the Moldovan legislature and a member of the border police. Local media has reported that they were allegedly passing information to Russia.
Chisinau is grappling with a massive wave of hybrid attacks and provocations by the Kremlin ahead of Moldova’s presidential elections and a referendum on accession to the European Union scheduled for Oct. 20.
According to Moldova’s pro-EU leaders, the moves are part of an effort to destabilize the country and prevent it from moving closer to the EU. The country began accession talks in June and President Maia Sandu and Prime Minister Dorin Recean have said that the government wants to complete the process by 2030.
Wednesday’s raid in the parliament building targeted the office of Ion Creanga, the head of the legal department, Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu told reporters. Creanga has been a parliamentary employee since 1992 and was allegedly caught red-handed on Tuesday night providing information to a Russian agent, TV8 reported.
In a joint statement, officials from the intelligence service and prosecutor’s office said that one of the suspects has been charged with treason for allegedly collecting information “to be used to the detriment of Moldova’s interests” and delivering it to an employee at a foreign embassy.
The second official is suspected of plotting against Moldova for attempting to pass sensitive information to the same embassy employee in exchange for personal gain, the statement added.
Moldovan authorities on Thursday expelled an assistant military attache at the Russian Embassy in a move that Russian Ambassador to Chisinau Oleg Vasnetsov described as unfriendly. Moscow “will find appropriate responses,” he said.
The Russian Embassy in Moldova also denied any wrongdoing and said in a statement that “the insinuations are another manifestation of artificially fostered anti-Russian sentiments in Moldova”.
In July 2023, Moldova expelled 45 Russian diplomats and embassy staff due to “numerous unfriendly actions and attempts to destabilize the internal situation in Moldova.”
President Maia Sandu has urged the authorities to investigate as quickly as possible and to harshly penalize what she described as an “example of betrayal of the fatherland” in order to discourage similar behavior by other officials.
“In Moldova, the subject of treason has not been treated seriously because of politicians in power who have been working in Russia’s interests for years”, she told JurnalTV late on Wednesday.
--With assistance from Piotr Skolimowski.
(Updated with expelled Russian official and reaction starting in eighth paragraph)
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