Moldova uncovers a criminal network linked to Russia that aims to influence the October elections

MADRID 3 Oct. () –

The Moldovan Police have reported the existence of a criminal network linked to Russia that managed to recruit nearly 130,000 citizens through bribes to influence the outcome of the presidential elections and the referendum on the country’s accession to the European Union. next October 20.

The head of the General Inspectorate of Police (IGP), Viorel Cernauteanu, explained in a press conference that the criminal organization, led by the opposition Ilan Shor, managed to transfer “the equivalent of 15 million dollars for these purposes.”

The money was transferred from Russia through a bank that is on the international sanctions list. The data collection mechanisms, including lists of those bribed, were carried out through the Telegram application, according to the Infotag news agency.

The head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, Verónica Dragalin, has warned that “offering money to people to vote in a certain way is punishable by between one and five years in prison and a fine of more than 50,000 Moldovan leu” (2,600 euros). ).

The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom denounced last June that Russia is trying to interfere in the Moldovan presidential elections and urged the Kremlin to abandon its efforts to “subvert democracy in Moldova” and to respect “its sovereignty and the results of free elections.” , fair and independent”.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu accused Russia of launching a “hybrid war” against the country to bring about the fall of the Government through protests against the authorities, mainly fueled by the pro-Russian Shor party – whose president is Ilan Shor – , which was declared illegal in June 2023.

Shor, founder of the pro-Russian party of the same name in 1998, has been a fugitive from Moldovan justice since 2019 and was sentenced ‘in absentia’ in May 2023 to fifteen years in prison for corruption crimes.

Tensions have increased significantly since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has historically been a source of debate in Moldova, among other reasons because of the influence that still persists in the separatist region of Transnistria, whose population is majority Russian and Ukrainian.