Report: Russia needs southern Ukraine to seize power in Moldova
Moldova’s pro-EU votes, electricity supplies and border security are concrete stakes in a campaign officials describe as continuing beyond recent elections.
laupäev, 15. august 2026 09:03
Russian authorities are carrying out a long-term operation to destabilize Moldova while keeping the conquest of Ukraine as their top priority, UNITED24 Media reported, citing The New York Times.
The cited investigation drew on interviews with Moscow-directed operatives, security officials from Moldova, Europe and the US, and thousands of leaked documents. It said Russian leader Vladimir Putin intends to capture southern Ukraine to create a land corridor connecting Russia directly to Moldova, with control over Moldova ranked as Moscow’s second priority.
Sergey Kiriyenko, deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, oversees destabilization efforts alongside Ilan Shor, a fugitive banker sentenced in Moldova to 15 years in prison over a 2014 fraud scheme that stole $1 billion from local banks. Before the autumn 2025 parliamentary elections, Shor recruited more than 150,000 Moldovans, about 4.5% of the registered electorate, and paid them to vote for specific candidates and join staged protests.
During the four months before the 2024 European Union integration referendum, Shor distributed nearly $20 million to 38,000 recruits to post anti-government content online and vote against President Maia Sandu, her party and EU accession. The operations also extended to GRU-managed training camps in Serbia, Bosnia and near Moscow, where recruits were trained in tactics including breaking police lines, arson, explosives, incendiary devices and drones.
Hundreds of Moldovan priests from the Russian Orthodox Church were flown to Russia from summer 2024, signed contracts with the Kremlin-linked Eurasia organization and received payment cards from Promsvyazbank. In exchange for roughly $1,000 each, the priests campaigned against EU integration among their parishioners.
The report also described direct infrastructure strikes, including shelling of a Ukrainian hydroelectric station near the Moldovan border that contaminated regional water supplies and a strike on a western Ukrainian high-voltage power line that provided up to 70% of Moldova’s electricity, causing widespread blackouts. Pro-EU voters secured narrow victories in 2024 and 2025, largely because of overseas diaspora votes, while Mihai Lupascu, director of Moldova’s Cybersecurity Agency, said: "We won the battle, but not the war."
Toeta nwsTraili
nwsTrail on sõltumatu välisuudiste veebileht. Sinu toetus aitab hoida sisu tasuta.
