Highlights of the New Spy Scandal Involving Russia

Christian RUSSU

The ruling regime has an almost annual tradition to blow up scandals around Russia’s alleged spying activities on the territory of Moldova. Last time it served as a pretext for a radical downsizing of the Russian embassy in Chisinau. Why do they need it this time?

The last few weeks have been relatively calm, without any stormy events. The summer vacation period and the resetting of the authorities in the European Union obviously did not dispose to the active exploitation of the foreign policy factor, the main focus of the ruling party and the president. Maia Sandu’s trips to Great Britain to attend the summit of the European Political Community and to France to appear at the opening of the Olympic Games were routine. The only outcome was several pictures of Sandu with European politicians and Moldovan athletes. No statements of comprehensive support for Moldova, no promises of new financial or military aid packages. Undoubtedly, these visits were used by the president to campaign among the diaspora in these countries, but this is more like a common practice. One could get the impression that before the election period officially started yesterday, the authorities had opted to adjust their policy, temporarily abandoning aggressive rhetoric and lowering the degree of anti-Russian hysteria. This version was further supported by the results of opinion polls published by pro-government NGOs, which, apart from the predictably inflated ratings of the president and PAS, also showed some credible data. For example, the data of the IPRE and CBX-AXA surveys published on July 30 reflected the inconsistency between the course of active militarization and integration into Euro-Atlantic structures and the opinion of the majority of citizens. Thus, when asked about the best solution to ensure Moldova’s security, 33,2% of respondents spoke for neutrality without defense investments and 18,3% - for neutrality with increased spending. Only 7.5% and 8% agreed with accession to NATO or union with Romania, respectively. The report also included some interesting figures regarding the current foreign policy course of the country: more than half of the people do not approve of leaving the CIS, 61.2% are against complicity in the anti-Russian sanctions policy. At the same time, 50% believe that Moldova can join the European Union with neutrality, and only 22.5% realize that the only way to integrate into the EU, based on the experience of the previous rounds of enlargement, is through NATO. It is quite understandable that such questions are included in the closed public opinion polls. However, publishing the deliberately biased results indicates the desire of the pro-governmental expert community to point out the need to take into account the public sentiments at least during the election period. Since the authorities will first of all blame the “service personnel” if Maia Sandu fails in the presidential race. It is obvious to connoisseurs of Moldovan domestic politics that Sandu can repeat her past electoral success only in the image of a “cute bunny”, but not as a “monkey with a grenade”. The political marketing team’s vision is that hugging athletes in Paris is good, but the threatening speeches about war, Ukraine and Putin should be abandoned for the time being. The temporary withdrawal of unpopular premier Recean with his defiant speeches, concealment of plans to divide and sell strategic assets, including the distribution networks RED NORD, FEE Nord, Moldtelecom, bus and railroad stations, is highly desirable. Returning to the geopolitical-free menu proposed by Maia Sandu in 2020 would be ideal. However, alongside the court advisors interested in keeping their warm seats, there is also a cohort of persons introduced by the curators, who demand from their apprentices to maintain the degree of Russophobic sentiments and Euro-Atlantic sycophancy. And now the head of the Legal Department of the Parliament, Ion Creanga, together with a Border Police officer are detained on charges of high treason and espionage in favor of Russia. And the Russian Embassy official who allegedly recruited them is declared persona non grata. It is naive to think that Creanga, the representative of the Moldovan deep state, was really guilty of betrayal. Informal meetings of officials of different levels with foreign diplomats and dinners over a glass of wine are almost obligatory rituals in our reality, not something uncommon. Moreover, it so happens that the start of the election campaign has coincided with a period of rotation in the Russian embassy. Therefore, the latest high-profile spy scandal with the expulsion of diplomats is full of symbols and meanings: first, it solves the problem of paralyzing the remaining mechanisms of interaction with Russia (we are talking about the peacekeeping operation on the Nistru River), and second, it emphasizes the unconditional loyalty of Maia Sandu and her irreplaceability as president. As we know, the famous fans of symbolism in the confrontation with Russia are in Foggy Albion, where our president traveled two weeks ago. It is possible that there she was blessed for another anti-Russian demarche. That is why Maia Sandu personally had to politically cover up the pre-arranged operation of the special services and prosecutors from the unit for combating organized crime and special cases (PCCOCS), who were waiting for their new boss. That this was a carefully planned action is also evidenced by the fact that Free Europe published on the same day an investigation about the alleged special ties between the expelled military attaché of the Russian Embassy and another previously deported employee of the Russian Foreign Ministry. It is still questionable whether Maia Sandu received carte blanche at the meeting with the EU and British leaders to sanitize the electoral field, now with a galaxy of bright competitors. The ambiguous statements about the abnormality of such a “large number of unauthentic candidates” and the need to have “only authentic candidates” in the electoral race hint that the advocates of democratic values in our country will definitely not face international criticism in case of another lawlessness of the ruling party in the elections.