(CNN) A secret plan by the Russian security service FSB lays out detailed options for destabilizing Moldova – including supporting pro-Russian groups, using the Orthodox Church and threatening to cut off natural gas supplies.
The document appears to have been drawn up to thwart Moldova’s western leanings, which include closer ties with NATO and a bid to join the European Union. He repeatedly points out the importance of preventing Moldova from joining NATO.
It was sourced and published first by a media consortium including VSquare and Frontstory, RISE Moldova, Expressen in Sweden, the Dossier Center for Investigative Journalism and other media.
CNN has seen the full document, which appears to have been written by the FSB’s Cross-Border Cooperation Directorate in 2021. Its title is “Strategic Goals of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Moldova”.
The document sets out a 10-year strategy to bring Moldova, a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, into Russia’s sphere of influence.
The plan includes making Moldova dependent on Russian gas imports and fomenting social strife, as well as trying to block Moldova’s efforts to gain influence in the pro-Russia breakaway region of Transnistria, where around 1,500 Russian soldiers are stationed.
The five-page document is divided into several sections with short-, medium- and long-term goals. Immediate goals include “supporting Moldova’s political forces advocating constructive relations with the Russian Federation” and “neutralizing Moldova’s initiatives aimed at eliminating the Russian military presence in Transnistria”.
Medium-term goals include “opposition to Romania’s expansionist policy in Moldova” and “opposition to cooperation between Moldova and NATO”.
The FSB document sets out long-term goals, including “creating stable pro-Russian influence groups in Moldova’s political and business elites” and “forming a negative attitude toward NATO.”
Asked about the document, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday: “We know nothing about the existence of such a plan. I do not rule out that this is another fake relations, including with Moldova.”
Peskov added: “We very much regret that the current leadership of Moldova experiences completely unjustified and unfounded prejudice against Moscow.”
Russia has accused Ukraine of planning an invasion and takeover of Transnistria, which borders southwestern Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said last month that Ukrainians are collecting armor in several border villages. Both Moldova and Ukraine have dismissed the lawsuit.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin rescinded a 2012 decree that reinforced Moldova’s sovereignty, saying the move was to “protect Russia’s national interests in the context of the profound changes taking place in international relations.”
In recent weeks, Moldovan authorities have arrested several suspected pro-Russian activists, as well as a suspected agent of private military company Wagner, who were trying to enter the country.
There were also several protests organized by a pro-Russian party in the capital, Chisinau.
Ukraine and the United States have both warned of Russian efforts to destabilize the Moldovan government. Last Friday, the White House said that “Russian actors, some of whom currently have ties to Russian intelligence, are trying to stage protests in Moldova and use them as a basis to foment an artificial insurgency against the Moldovan government.”
Western intelligence officials say the Russian strategy is not in itself surprising, but it may have been accelerated as the Moldovan government intensifies efforts to work more closely with the US and European states.
The current Moldovan President Maia Sandu replaced the Kremlin’s Igor Dodon at the end of 2020. The pro-Western PAS party won the general election the following year.
The pro-Russian Shor party has organized weekly demonstrations in the capital Chisinau this year, drawing several thousand people to protest high energy prices. The party organized transportation for the participants.
The party is led by Ilan Shor, a businessman with ties to Russia who is accused of stealing billions of dollars from Moldovan banks in 2014. He was later convicted of fraud but denies any wrongdoing.
The US Treasury Department sanctioned Shor, his wife and the party in October 2022, stating: “Shor worked with Russian individuals to create a political alliance to control the Moldovan parliament, which would then support several legislations in the interest of the Russian Federation .”
Shor is said to be currently in Israel.
The US has pledged budget support to the Moldovan government to help it cope with high energy prices. Gas tariffs have skyrocketed over the past year as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was in Chisinau on Thursday. He said: “Few societies understand the underhanded tactics of malign Russian activities better than Moldova and Georgia,” adding that “Britain will not stand by while Moscow blatantly undermines its democracy, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Clever announced further financial support for Moldova to deal with high energy prices.
One of Shor’s leaders, Marina Tauber, told CNN’s Swedish affiliate Expressen that the party is demanding that the government pay people’s energy bills for the winter months. She denied that Russia was helping to organize or fund the protests.
Expressen reporter Mattias Carlsson, who is in Chisinau, told CNN that the latest protest organized by Shor last Friday led to some arrests. Among the media attending the event, he said, was a reporter from Russia’s state broadcaster Sputnik.
Russian officials have frequently stressed the importance of a pro-Moscow Moldovan government, as well as the importance of the Transnistrian region.
Shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year, then-commander of Russia’s Central Military Region, Major General Rustam Minnekayev, said one goal of the so-called “military special operation” was to establish a corridor through southern Ukraine to the Transnistria region.