FSB works to undermine pro-Western government in Moldova

The documents — part of a trove of sensitive materials obtained by Ukrainian intelligence and reviewed by The Washington Post — illustrate how Moscow continues to try to manipulate countries in Eastern Europe even as its military campaign in Ukraine falters. The FSB has funneled tens of millions of dollars from some of Russia’s biggest state companies to cultivate a network of Moldovan politicians and reorient the country toward Moscow, the documents and interviews indicate.

The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday imposed sanctions on multiple Russian or Moldovan organizations and individuals including Shor, saying he was “coordinating with representatives of other oligarchs to create political unrest in Moldova” and had “received Russian support,” as well as working in June “with Moscow-based entities to undermine” Moldova’s bid to join the European Union.

Moscow has long supported a breakaway enclave inside Moldova’s borders that is occupied by Russian troops, and the frozen conflict there has been a brake on Moldova’s efforts to integrate with Western Europe.

In the first months of the Ukraine war, officials said, the Moldova government feared Russian tanks would stream over its border, especially if the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa, 40 miles away, fell. That immediate military threat has ebbed, but tension is mounting over the use of natural gas — as well as the fallout from Russian airstrikes on energy infrastructure in neighboring Ukraine — to force a change in political leadership.

Russia’s methodical attacks exploit frailty of Ukrainian power system

Management control of Moldova’s two main pro-Russian TV channels was transferred to a close Shor associate at the end of September, according to Shor and the head of Moldova’s media oversight council, providing him with a major platform to advance a Moscow-aligned agenda in this small country sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania. In addition, intercepted communications show, the FSB sent a team of Russian political strategists to advise Shor’s party. And, according to the documents, the FSB oversaw a deal in which a Russian oligarch acquired one of Shor’s main assets, to shield it from the Moldovan authorities.

The Shor party was to be positioned as one “of concrete action,” populist “in the real sense of the word,” a party that was “changing people’s lives for the better,” the Russian strategists wrote in a report to the FSB, which was among the documents reviewed by The Post.

In an interview, Shor denied ever receiving support from Moscow, including from the security services. “We are an absolutely independent party which defends only the position of Moldovan citizens,” he said. He blamed the Moldovan government’s pro-Western tilt for bringing the country close to what he said was “economic collapse.” In a statement issued Thursday following the imposition of U.S. sanctions, Shor defiantly dismissed them as a “victory” that showed Moldova’s president had “really become frightened by the protests, understanding that her days are numbered and that we will throw her out of her seat.”

FSB works to undermine pro-Western government in Moldova