TINDERBOX

President of Second Country Scrambles to Prevent Putin Incursion

The president of Moldova asked parliament to toughen security laws after intel suggested Putin is planning to stage a coup d’état imminently via undercover Russians.

Days after a Russian missile breached Moldovan airspace en route to a Ukraine target, the former Soviet country says it is in the Kremlin’s sights. President Maia Sandu confirmed reports by Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia is working to undermine Moldova’s government, even as the U.S. State Department tamped down such threats. On Monday, Sandu called for new laws to help defend the country from what many see as an inevitable next step for Putin.

Zelensky raised the alarm when he told the European Union summit that Kyiv had “intercepted the plan for the destruction of Moldova by Russian intelligence.” He went on to say that the “document” shows “who, when and how it is going to break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova.”

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Vedant Patel, State Department spokesman, said last week that their intelligence indicated no direct threat to the eastern European country, but Sandu said over the weekend that internal intelligence backed up by Ukraine documents pointed otherwise. “Documents received from our Ukrainian partners show documentation of the locations and logistical aspects of organizing these subversions,” Sandu said in a televised address. “The plan also involves the use of people from outside the country for violent actions.”

At a press conference on Monday, Sandu said the plan involved a violent coup d’état. “The plan for the future period envisages sabotage with the involvement of persons with military training, disguised as civilians, to resort to violence, attack government buildings, and take hostages,” she said. “The documents received contain instructions for citizens of Russia, Belarus, Serbia, and Montenegro on how to cross into Moldova.”

Moldova has been in a perilous position since the war began last February, and the president said the country had likely been infiltrated by criminal gangs working to offset the stability of the country. “The purpose of these actions is to overthrow the constitutional order, to change the legitimate government from Chisinau to an illegitimate one, which would put the country at the disposal of Russia to stop the process of integration into the EU,” Sandu said, putting her state institutions on high alert.

On Friday, Moldova’s parliament led by prime minister Natalia Gavrilita collapsed after a tenuous 18 months in power. Gavrilita blamed inflation, high energy prices, a refugee influx and Russian aggression for the collapse. “I took over the government with an anti-corruption, pro-development and pro-European mandate at a time when corruption schemes had captured all the institutions and the oligarchs felt untouchable,” she said during her resignation speech. “We were immediately faced with energy blackmail, and those who did this hoped that we would give in.”

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