At least 74 people have been arrested in Moldova over an alleged plot to organise “mass riots” in the Eastern European nation as President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of an attempt to sway next weekend’s parliamentary elections.
The police said the suspects were detained on Monday after more than 250 raids were carried out across the country. “The searches are related to a criminal case into the preparation of mass riots and destabilisation, which were coordinated from the Russian Federation through criminal elements,” police said in a statement on Monday.
Victor Furtuna, a leading Moldovan prosecutor, said those arrested were aged 19 to 45 and most of them had received training in Serbia.
Pro-Western Sandu, who has described Sunday’s voting as the “most consequential” in the nation’s history, accused the Kremlin of pouring “hundreds of millions of euros” into the country in an attempt to sway the elections.
“People are intoxicated daily with lies,” Sandu said after Monday’s raids. “Hundreds of individuals are paid to provoke disorder, violence and spread fear.”
“I appeal to all citizens: We must not allow our country to be handed over to foreign interests,” the president added.
Moscow has long denied meddling in Moldova’s domestic affairs.
The Kremlin has also been accused of interfering in the politics of Moldova’s neighbour, Romania.
Last year, far-right politician Calin Georgescu won the first round of Romania’s presidential election before it was annulled by the Constitutional Court, which accused Russia of meddling in the electoral process. Moscow denied any involvement.
Georgescu, a strong critic of NATO, was barred from competing in this year’s election, rerun by Romania’s central election authority.
Sandu’s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) has sought to cast Moldova’s elections as critical not just for Moldova but also for the wider continent. The president has warned that the country would be used as “a launchpad for hybrid attacks on the European Union” if it were run by a pro-Russian government.
Amid widespread Western accusations of Russian interference in Moldova, German, French and Polish leaders have recently visited the country, which applied for EU membership in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Although the Moldovan government is ahead in most pre-election polls, political analysts believe the result could be close.
The opposition, led by the pro-Russian Patriotic bloc, is trying to tap into voters’ frustrations over economic hardships and unfulfilled reform promises.
Igor Dodon, a former president who is the joint leader of the Patriotic bloc, said on the Telegram messaging app that some of its members were targeted in Monday’s raids.
The Moldovan government “is trying to intimidate us, frighten the people and silence us”, he said.
Last month, the fugitive Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, who has been sanctioned by the United States and EU for being an alleged Russian agent, offered his countrymen $3,000 to join antigovernment protests.
With more than one million Moldovans living abroad, diaspora voters could play an important role in Sunday’s voting.
A record 300,000 Moldovans in the diaspora cast ballots in the second round of last year’s presidential election, helping Sandu win re-election in a country whose population is only 2.4 million.
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