Moldova expels Russian diplomat after detaining two officials suspected of treason and conspiracy

Moldova’s foreign ministry says it has expelled a Russian diplomat after two Moldovan officials were detained on suspicion of treason and conspiracy against the European Union candidate country

Moldova Russia Diplomat (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday it has expelled a Russian diplomat after two Moldovan officials were detained on suspicion of treason and conspiracy against the European Union candidate country.

One of the Moldovan officials is suspected of treason for allegedly collecting and providing information to an embassy employee that could be used against Moldova’s interests, the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases said, and the other is accused of plotting against the country for personal gain.

One of the suspects works in Parliament and the other for the border police. Both were detained earlier this week for 72 hours and were allegedly collaborating with a foreign embassy in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau. The authorities did not state which country's embassy was involved.

The foreign ministry said Thursday that it summoned Russia’s ambassador, Oleg Vasnetsov, to inform him that an unnamed embassy worker was a “collaborator” who was declared persona non grata and must leave the country. Information and evidence were obtained, the ministry said, “that attest to the conduct on the territory of the Republic of Moldova … of activities incompatible with the diplomatic status."

It is the latest diplomatic spat to strain increasingly fraught ties between Russia and Moldova, whose pro-Western government has firmly opposed Russia’s full-scale war in neighboring Ukraine.

In March this year, Moldova expelled another Russian diplomat after the Kremlin opened six polling stations in Moldova’s pro-Russia breakaway region of Transnistria for its presidential election, against the wishes of Moldovan authorities.

Russia had previously agreed to open just one polling station at its embassy in Chisinau.

Moldovan officials have repeatedly accused Russia of conducting a “hybrid war” against their country by funding anti-government protests, meddling in local elections and running vast disinformation campaigns to try to topple the government and derail the country from its path toward full EU membership.

Moldova is set to hold a referendum on EU membership and a presidential election this fall.