The Republic of Moldova resists with increased difficulty the massive hybrid attack staged by the Russian Federation, while Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) is behind the protests mounted in Chisinau and the attempt to remove the pro-European government in Moldova, IPN reports, quoting the program “EuroAtlantic Objective” broadcast by DefenseRomania, which involved Moldova’s former minister of defense Anatol Șalaru.

The ex-minister said that Bessarabia has been subject to a hybrid attack that was launched in 1991 and was considerably accelerated in the context of the war in Ukraine.

In the program, Șalaru criticized the approaches made by the current executive since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and drew attention to the danger that Russia can oust the government in Chisinau in order to install a puppet executive.

“Last summer during a visit to Kyiv, where I had meetings with very influential persons, I was told that they possess information that an attempt to oust the government by large-scale protests was to be made last autumn, with the Russian intelligence services aiming to remove the government and to establish a pro-Russian puppet government in Chisinau. This was exactly the scenario we witnessed later,” stated Anatol Șalaru, referring to the disorders staged last autumn by the pro-Russian party Short Party, which is de facto led by controversial businessman Ilan Shor, who in 2017 was sentenced for the US$1 billion theft from Moldovan banks in 2014.

Asked if the FSB banks on Ilan Shor and his party after Igor Dodon lost the elections and now experiences multiple legal problems, Anatol Șalaru said the FSB banks on more persons and “laid eggs in different nests in Chisinau”.

“The FSB is not so silly to bank only on someone. It banks on more persons. Dodon is no longer on the books and cannot be the leader of the pro-Russian opposition. Therefore, they brought back Ilan Shor. When they saw that Shor has criminal case started against him and his accounts in Israel and elsewhere were blocked, they returned Renato Usatyi to politics. There is also the current mayor of Chisinau (e.n. Ion Ceban), who is given a rating of 48% in polls and who abandoned the PSRM. He could be “the chosen one”. The FSB laid eggs in different nests in Chisinau. It is very possible that the FSB will start to promote a new leader,” concluded the former minister of defense of the Republic of Moldova.