Due to mismanagement, SIS in the course of 2023 was involved in collecting information for purposes other than preventing threats to national security. The efficiency of the main operational divisions of the institution has diminished substantially. The accusations we made by the former SIS deputy director Alexandru Balan.
In a press conference at IPN, Alexandru Balan noted that a number of shortcomings were detected in 2023 in the SIS’ work, namely in the planning and organization of the necessary measures.
Alexandru Balan referred to the press briefing held by SIS director Alexandru Musteața, in which this said that Moldova is the target of a hybrid war launched by the Russian Federation through criminal groups led by the fugitive criminal Ilan Shor. “Surely, the presented information is appreciable, especially in the context of communication with civil society, but here I would like to draw attention to the role and powers that SIS should have in detecting and countering foreign intelligence services. The SIS’s Counterespionage Division should have obviously played a decisive role in this story with external funding and involvement of representatives of the Russian intelligence services. Unfortunately, we didn’t see actions taken by this division, either before the press briefing organized by director Musteața or after it,” said Alexandru Balan.
According to the former SIS deputy director, the country’ citizens need to know whether or not the activities of the Russian or other intelligence services, mentioned in the report that was presented to the general public, had been documented and countered. The lack of results in the counterintelligence work points only to inefficiency in the coordination and approval of such measures vertically, namely by the SIS deputy director who is responsible for operational activities.
The following of Ukrainian diplomats in Moldova, which is also within the remit of the Counterespionage Division, is another aspect that is absolutely unacceptable in his opinion. Alexandru Balan said that if there hadn’t been a military conflict in the neighboring state, the situation would have been different. But in the current extremely complicated conjuncture in Ukraine, where thousands of Ukrainian soldiers sacrifice their lives daily to defend the motherland, when SIS ordered and carried out measures to follow Ukrainian diplomats, such actions seem extremely suspicious and question the competences of SIS.
“To be clear, such measures are ordered in particular cases, when those diplomats suspected by SIS of espionage pose a real danger to national security. In my opinion, these actions constitute an abuse and those who gave such instructions must provide the necessary explanations,” concluded Alexandru Balan.
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