The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, said in an interview published by the Financial Times on Friday that her country foiled an attempt by the slain leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin to incite an uprising to remove her from power.

According to President Maia Sandu, Wagner’s group hatched a plan to destabilize his country at the beginning of the year, and Russia is now using various methods to buy votes ahead of a series of elections, especially the presidential one, to be held next year. in the Republic of Moldova, such as the introduction into this country of contraband money or bank cards issued in Dubai, Agerpres cites.

“The information we have is that it was a plan prepared by (Prygozhin’s) team, which was intended to provoke anti-government demonstrations that would turn violent. “The situation is really dramatic and we have to protect ourselves,” says Maia Sandu, describing the current situation.

In February, European and US officials warned that Russia was plotting to topple the pro-Western government of Maia Sandu, and in March authorities in Chisinau announced they had arrested a member of Wagner’s group and charged them with inciting rebellion.

“Russia is trying to increase pressure on (the Republic of) Moldova. They tried with energy and failed. They tried to overthrow the government and failed. And now they are trying to massively interfere in our elections, using big money,” says Maya Sandu.

She asked the European Union, in addition to sanctions already imposed on oligarch Ilan Shor, whose party was outlawed by Chisinau authorities, to also impose sanctions on companies linked to him or that he uses to funnel money into the country.

“We cannot play chess with the Russians if they are wearing boxing gloves,” Maia Sandu justified the measures against the pro-Russian opposition.

Local elections will be held in the Republic of Moldova next month, and Maia Sandu’s party is stirring up emotions in some regions, particularly in the capital Chisinau. She claims that she has evidence that Russia will try to gain a political advantage in these elections ahead of the next presidential and parliamentary elections in 2025.

Moldovan special services have discovered at least 20 million euros of Russian funding that entered the country for political purposes, and the real amount is probably higher, the president says.

“The instruments by which they (Russians) inject money into the country are very diverse. I saw for a while that they were just sending Moldovan citizens (citizens) to Moscow by plane through Armenia. And these people came back with 10,000 euros each. And recently I saw that they bring cards, bank cards that were issued in Dubai (…), they just give out thousands of cards (…), bank cards to people they want to bribe,” he continued to Maya Sandu .

She asked European leaders gathered this week for an EU summit in the Spanish city of Granada to step up their vigilance against “illegal financing from Russia” passing through their jurisdictions to the Republic of Moldova.