Investigation // Kremlin plan for the Republic of Moldova
In 2021, the Kremlin developed a plan to destabilize the situation in the Republic of Moldova, in order to prevent our country from joining the EU and NATO, through disinformation campaigns and denigration, in particular, of the North Atlantic Alliance. Another point of the Russian plan was to force our country to participate in Russian international projects, such as the Eurasian Union. Likewise, it was proposed to solve the Transnistrian conflict by granting a special status to the region. Several international journalists came into possession of the document issued by the Kremlin and published this plan to destabilize the Republic of Moldova.
According to the document, obtained by an international consortium of journalists, including RISE Moldova, until 2022, the Kremlin administration planned to prevent the Moldovan authorities from excluding Russia from the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, intending to maintain the Russian military presence in the unrecognized territory. The duties of the presidential administration also included the support of pro-Russian Moldovan politicians.
In addition, according to the Strategy, Russia should have exploited the dependence of the Republic of Moldova on Russian imports, economic pressure being one of the main levers of influence. Thus, Moscow several times threatened Chisinau with reducing the volume of natural gas deliveries or even stopping them. But the authorities of the Republic of Moldova, with the support of development partners, managed to deal with the energy crisis.
Another important task of the Kremlin, written in that document, was to prevent the restriction of Russian media on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, but the Plan failed because, in 2022, the license of six Moldovan TV stations that misinformed the society through topics Russian propaganda was suspended.
The Kremlin's next step was to encourage pro-Russian sentiments among citizens, so that people would then trust pro-Russian politicians more. In this context, the protests organized by the Movement for the People, which the authorities in Chisinau have stated are part of Moscow's actions to destabilize the situation in the Republic of Moldova, are included.
Under the document, it becomes clear that in 2021 the presidential administration of Russia was not preparing for a military intervention in the Republic of Moldova. The main objectives in the military sector targeted the Transnistrian region - Russian officials wanted to indirectly manage the conflict in transnistrian region, using it as a destabilizing lever.
We remind you that on February 13, President Maia Sandu mentioned that the state institutions confirmed the statements of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski regarding the plans of the Russian Federation to destabilize the Republic of Moldova, through subversive actions and economic blackmail.
