The former Constitutional Court president Alexandru Tănase believes the so-called leaks from the hacked Telegram Messenger accounts of some top Moldovan officials are part of Russia’s hybrid warfare against Moldova and an attempt by its secret services to put pressure on the Moldovan government.
“These leaks must be treated with a lot of suspicion, as they could have been easily altered and interpolated with fake content. It is part of the hybrid warfare that Russia is waging. Hacking a Telegram account is not at all a simple affair, because we are talking about a fairly secure system. It is an element of pressure and blackmail on everyone. They want to propagate insecurity, so that everyone understands that they are under the watchful eye of the Russian secret services. But government communication on many subjects remains flawed. When those targeted do not know how to offer conclusive explanations, their rivals do it in their stead”, Alexandru Tănase told a talk show on Moldova 1.
His fellow panelist, the political commentator Anatol Țăranu, agrees that the government’s damage control and communication effort has been lacking in this situation, leaving a lot of room for the opposition to profit from the scandal.
“The leaks have really made news. Moreover, we’ve come to see a censure motion being tabled against a minister. From the first moment when those leaks appeared, the officials should have had a very prompt response. But the explanations have been quite inadequate. Some of the targeted officials have admitted that the leaks are at least in part true. But what if everything is true? In the absence of plausible explanations, we begin to believe the explanations offered by the opposition”, said Anatol Țăranu.
But the author Mircea V. Ciobanu suggests the public shouldn’t put too much credence in the whole affair.
“These hacks are not your usual hacker story. These are premeditated actions. We have the statement of the SIS director, who said that all traces lead to Russia. The method is as old as the hills. It’s the method of spreading gossip and discrediting opponents with information that I think we should completely ignore. They are imposing a false flag agenda on us. That should not concern us. Everyone is being told that other secrets could be made public soon”, Mircea V. Ciobanu said.
Earlier, the Security and Intelligence Service director Alexandru Musteață declared that “secret services of foreign governments” seem to be behind the leaks, with Russia being the “primary suspect”.
