After analyzing information about the crossing of the Moldovan border, journalists of RISE Moldova determined that since the middle of 2014, which is after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, two to four Russian citizens with diplomatic passports entered Moldova each year and these included officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB), IPN reports, quoting Vladimir Thorik, co-author of the investigation “FSB Handlers for Moldova”.
“The serial numbers of the papers of these diplomats show that these were issued one after another, as in the case of employees of the Organization of the Main Intelligence Administration (“GRU”) Petrov and Boshirov, exposed after the case of poisoning of Sergey Skripal and his daughter Iulia. Among the persons who came to Moldova with diplomatic passports (issued by Russia’s MFA) are high-ranking officers, like the deputy head of the Department of Operational Information, the so-called main FSB handler for Moldova, general Dmitry Milyutin, and the head of the “Transnistrian” section of the Department of Operational Information Ivan Koroli,”, Vladimir Thorik explained for IPN. He earlier published the list of Russian diplomats among who each third was or is connected with the Russian intelligence services, according to journalistic investigations.
The journalist considers it is important for Moldova’s Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu to publicly say if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration knows that the country for about ten years has been visited by FSB employees under diplomatic cover, more exactly with passports issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
“Is or was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ever ready to discuss with representatives of Russia’s Embassy the visits to Moldova paid by the Russians with diplomatic passports, who do not have duties at the embassy? Are the Ministry or other intuitions that inform it aware of the activities performed by Russian citizens (including those who continue staying in the county), who came to the country with diplomatic passports issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia,” wondered the investigative journalist.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration recently hosted a meeting of the joint working groups of the Strategic Dialogue with the United States, in which Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, stated that he welcomed the U.S. authorities’ announcement concerning the recent inclusion of Moldovan politicians in the sanctions list of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for their considerable acts of corruption, for their actions to undermine the rule of law and for allying themselves with the Russian intelligence services in illegal actions to reverse our European road.
