Two foreign nationals that were caught carrying out subversive actions to destabilize Moldova by carrying out “subversive actions” have been expelled from the country and banned from returning for 10 years, Moldova’s intelligence agency said on Monday.
The Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) did not say in its statement how long the foreign nationals- who posed as tourists – were in Moldova, which countries they were from, or for whom they were allegedly working.
The agency said that the pair were allegedly gathering data and information in order to implement a plan to destabilize the internal situation in Moldova by provoking, as SIS described it, a violent change to the country’s constitutional order.
According to SIS, the foreigners which they believe were organized in the capital by certain political forces were reportedly actively monitoring various locations near government offices and critical infrastructure, documenting social and political processes in the country – including protests – and carrying out other subversive actions.
The pair was allegedly coordinated from the shadows by a group affiliated with a conspiratorial network of social engineering experts and overseas political technology.
The announcement from SIS comes in light of President Maia Sandu’s statement on Feb. 13 in which she outlined an alleged plot by Russia to overthrow the Moldovan government so it can put Moldova at the disposal of Moscow and derail it from its European course.
She said that there are efforts to force out a change of power in Chisinau through violent actions, masked under protests of the so-called opposition and relying on several internal forces, such as Moldova’s Russia-friendly Shor Party.
A recently formed group called Movement for the People organized a protest last Sunday in Chisinau that gathered several thousand anti-government protesters demanding the new government to fully cover energy bills amid a cost-of-living crisis and the pro-Western President Sandu to step down.
