The FSB sent tens of millions of dollars from some of Russia’s largest state-owned companies to develop a network of Moldovan politicians and reorient the country to Moscow, according to documents seen by The Washington Post.

After thousands of protesters gathered outside Moldova’s presidential palace last month to demand the resignation of pro-Western leader Maia Sandu, the man behind the demonstration – the leader of an opposition party in exile in Israel – received congratulations from Moscow.

A senior Russian politician praised protest organizer Ilan Sora as a “worthy long-term partner” and even offered the Moldovan region led by Sora’s party a cheap Russian gas contract, according to Sora’s press service.

According to intelligence documents and interviews with Moldovan officials, the 35-year-old Sor, described by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) as “young”, is a key figure in the Kremlin’s efforts to undermine the Republic of Moldova. The Washington Post.

The documents illustrate how Moscow continues to try to manipulate countries in Eastern Europe, even as its military campaign in Ukraine stalls.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions on several entities and individuals from Russia and the Republic of Moldova, including Shor, saying he “coordinated with representatives of other oligarchs to create political unrest in Moldova” and that he “received support from Russia.” and that he worked in June “with organizations located in Moscow to undermine” the Republic of Moldova’s bid to join the European Union.

Control over television by the Republic of Moldova

According to Shor and the head of Moldova’s media watchdog, in late September control of the two main pro-Russian TV channels in Moldova was transferred to a close associate of Shor, giving him an important platform to push an agenda aligned with Moscow.

In addition, the FSB sent a group of Russian political technologists to advise Shor’s party. And, according to the documents, the FSB oversaw an operation in which a Russian oligarch purchased one of Shor’s major assets to protect him from Moldovan authorities.

The Shor party was supposed to be positioned as a party of “concrete action”, populist “in the literal sense of the word”, a party that “changes people’s lives for the better”, Russian strategists wrote in the FSB report, which was among the documents analyzed by The Washington Post .

Russia’s campaign in the Republic of Moldova may intensify

Sor denies that he received support from Moscow, claiming that he leads “an absolutely independent party that only defends the position of the citizens of Moldova.”

Moldovan and American officials fear that the Kremlin’s efforts to undermine Moldova, part of a decade-long campaign, could intensify if it suffers further losses in Ukraine.

The Republic of Moldova, which in June along with Ukraine received EU candidate status, is particularly vulnerable to Russian pressure due to its almost 100% dependence on Russian gas.

Huge electricity bills

This year’s more than five-fold increase in gas prices has seriously affected a population of 2.5 million residents, with electricity bills now accounting for more than 60% of the average cost of living for a Moldovan, Chisinau officials said.

Officials fear that the protests orchestrated by Shore, though relatively small so far, could intensify as winter approaches and that the energy crisis could be used to topple the government.

Moldova’s new anti-corruption prosecutor this month arrested 24 people, including members of Shor’s party, in connection with the alleged illegal financing of the demonstrations, with the prosecutor saying investigators seized 20 black bags containing 3.5 million lei (about $181,000). in cash

The Shore party said the arrests were “pressure” from the authorities to end the anti-government protests.

Import of corruption from Russia

According to the documents, since 2016 FSB operations in the Republic of Moldova have been headed by Dmytro Milyutin, a general of the security service who is the deputy head of the Department of Operational Intelligence.

According to officials, Milyutin worked for most of his tenure through Igor Chaika, a Russian businessman and the son of Russia’s former prosecutor general.

Chaika is a representative in Moldova of the Kremlin-linked business association Delovaya Russia.

The Finance Ministry also imposed sanctions on Chaika on Wednesday, saying that “together with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov” he “developed detailed plans to undermine Moldovan President Maia Sandu and return Moldova to Russia’s sphere of influence.”

In addition, according to the Ministry of Finance, the Russian government used “Chaika’s companies as fronts to channel money to cooperating political parties in Moldova. Some of these illegal campaign funds were intended for bribery and election fraud.”

Milyutin intensively communicated with Chaika

According to Ukrainian intelligence documents, Milyutin communicated with Chaika more than 6,000 times from December 2020 to June 2022.

The FSB “checked with (Chaika) what needed to be done at any time,” the Ukrainian security official said, referring to the documents.

The FSB, Milyutin and Chaika declined to comment to The Washington Post, and Peskov said he “of course” knew Chaika but had never worked with him on a plan to restore Russian influence in Moldova.

The fall of Dodon and the rise of Shor

Until recently, according to the documents, the main vector of the FSB in Moldova was the Socialist Party headed by Igor Dodon, who was the pro-Moscow president of Moldova from 2016 to 2020.

Chaika has never hidden his close ties to Dodon: as of 2019, he and Dodon’s younger brother owned real estate and a waste disposal business in Russia, according to the company’s official registration documents.

In a secretly recorded video leaked in 2019, Dodon admitted receiving funding from the Kremlin, including Gazprom, and said he needed between $800,000 and $1 million a month to cover his party’s “current expenses.”

On November 15, 2020, Maia Sandu, known for her pro-Western views, became the president of the Republic of Moldova.

This overturned the FSB’s plans and changed the plan in 2021 to use the Socialists’ position as the largest party in parliament, along with Shor’s party, to preserve the influence of the Russian agency, including by passing a law that would transfer control of Moldova’s security. and the intelligence service from the president to the parliament.

But Dodon’s party was defeated in the parliamentary elections in July 2021, and the plan went nowhere.

Moldovan FSB political technologists reported to Moscow in September 2021 that Dodon is a person with an “irreversibly damaged reputation” and should be removed from the political scene.

Shor replaced Dodon

Thus, Dodon was replaced by the FSB in the Shor party.

Political technologists hired by the Kremlin first came to Chisinau from Russia in March 2021 to secretly work with Shor’s party, according to documents seen by the American publication.

They went to great lengths to ensure their presence was not detected, buying prepaid SIM cards for payphones and hiding the addresses of the apartments they rented, even from members of Shore’s party, according to a note written by one of them.

Among the measures they recommended for Șor’s party is to erase as much as possible the “negative background”, probably Șor’s past criminal record, and to try to clean up his image on the Internet.

In the table, which was part of the recommendations sent to the FSB, the strategists suggested offering journalists a “reward” to remove articles “in extreme circumstances” or gain “control over judicial decisions” if Shor’s party instead decided to sue him for slander. .

Ordinary people suffer regardless of political pressure

For many Moldovans who protested against the government in Chisinau, despite prosecutors’ claims that some are being paid to protest, their concerns are real and relevant.

“People are going out because we can’t afford to live,” says pensioner Zina.

“Gas has become five times more expensive, but pensions and salaries are the same. Shor gave us gifts on public holidays. And when they were in power, they only showed us their fists.”

The protesters, supported by Sor, resorted to increasingly aggressive tactics, and as the energy crisis in Moldova worsened, Chisinau grew wary.

The Russians are “doing everything they can to put out the lights,” a Western official said. “They don’t need to do more than this to destabilize the government of Moldova.”