Russia’s Intelligence Services Accused of Orchestrating Moldova Destabilization

On 26 March 2025, the Lans­ing Insti­tute report­ed that Rus­sia has like­ly launched a coor­di­nat­ed intel­li­gence oper­a­tion to desta­bi­lize Moldo­va, par­tic­u­lar­ly tar­get­ing the autonomous region of Gagauzia. The arti­cle begins:

There is a high like­li­hood that Rus­sia has launched an oper­a­tion to desta­bi­lize the sit­u­a­tion in Moldo­va. Ear­li­er, we pre­dict­ed that Moscow was plan­ning a sub­ver­sive oper­a­tion in Gagauzia to trig­ger a sep­a­ratist sce­nario. On March 25, Evghe­nia Gut­sul, the head of Gagauzia, was arrest­ed in Chișinău’s air­port while attempt­ing to leave the coun­try. Gut­sul is sus­pect­ed of receiv­ing fund­ing from Rus­sia through the exiled oli­garch Ilan Shor. Pros­e­cu­tors are now seek­ing her pre­ven­tive deten­tion. Gut­sul is a mem­ber of the Shor Par­ty, which has faced crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions for ille­gal financ­ing. In 2017, Ilan Shor was sen­tenced to sev­en years and six months in prison for his involve­ment in the theft of $1 bil­lion from Moldova’s bank­ing sys­tem. Rus­si­a’s Fed­er­al Secu­ri­ty Ser­vice (FSB) alleged­ly facil­i­tat­ed Shor’s trans­fer of key assets, includ­ing shares in Chișinău Inter­na­tion­al Air­port, to Russ­ian busi­ness­man Andrey Goncharenko…

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Key Points:

• FSB alleged­ly orches­trat­ed Gagauzia leader Gut­sul’s arrest to pro­voke anti-gov­ern­ment protests across Moldo­va as part of broad­er desta­bi­liza­tion efforts.
• Russ­ian intel­li­gence oper­a­tions in Moldo­va report­ed­ly direct­ed by Gen­er­al Dmit­ry Milyutin through Igor Chai­ka, son of Rus­si­a’s for­mer pros­e­cu­tor general.
• Krem­lin strate­gists aim to under­mine Pres­i­dent Maia San­du and return Moldo­va to Rus­si­a’s sphere of influ­ence through coor­di­nat­ed FSB-SVR operations.
• Intel­li­gence ana­lysts warn that Russ­ian oper­a­tives may attempt to seize admin­is­tra­tive build­ings in Gagauzia to esca­late region­al sep­a­ratist tensions.

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