Moldovan President claimes Wagnerites planned coup in Moldova
Maia Sandu, President of Moldova, has claimed that the Russian Wagner Group tried to stage a coup in Moldova. It was the coup disrupted at the beginning of 2023.
Source: Sandu in an interview for Financial Times, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Sandu stated without providing details that according to the coup plan, the group of Yevgeny Prigozhin, late founder and chief of the Wagner PMC, was deployed in Moldova.
She stressed that Russia is actively influencing Moldova using gas supply, hybrid attacks, including cyber tools, and threats related to Transnistria, Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist region.
"Russia is going to increase its pressure on Moldova. They tried energy and they failed. They tried to overthrow the government and they failed. And now they are trying massive interference in our elections, using a lot of money," Sandu said.
She stated that Moldovan special services have detected at least €20 million of Russian money which were transferred to Moldova for political purposes.
"The tools they use to bring money to the country are very diverse. We have seen for a while that they were just sending Moldovans to Moscow by plane through Armenia. And these people would each bring [back] €10 000. We’ve seen recently that they were bringing cards, bank cards that were issued in Dubai," the president explained.
Russia has been pressuring Moldova since the beginning of Sandu’s presidency in 2020 because it is not satisfied with her pro-Western position and her intent to achieve EU-membership for Moldova.
Background: On 13 February, Maia Sandu published the details of the Russian plan of a military coup which, according to her, included attacking state institutions and capturing hostages.
Read also: Coup Attempt in Moldova: Sandu Nominates New Prime Minister Facing Russia's Threat
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