The General Inspectorate of Police (IGP) has disrupted the operation planned for Sunday, 12 March, during the protest announced by the “People’s Movement”, of which the “Shor” party is a member, where it was intended to “organise destabilising actions and mass disorder”. The statements were made by the head of the National Police, Viorel Chernăuțeanu, during a press briefing, where he gave details of the scheme hatched by some citizens of the Russian Federation.

According to the head of the IGP, specialized services from the Russian Federation are involved in possible actions to destabilize Moldova. Diversionists were to be organised in 10 groups of 5 to 10 people, and for provoking law enforcement and creating corridors to organise destabilisation during protests, they were to be paid 10 thousand dollars each.

Diversionists were recruited from among people with criminal records and sportsmen and relied on “certain opposition forces in Moldova who will provide lawyers and support if necessary,” the National Police chief added.

Statements by the head of the IGP, Viorel Cernăuțeanu:

“(…) The police, together with the Prosecutor’s Office, established some working benchmarks in the context of destabilization, unrest, which was to take place in Chisinau municipality. In this chapter, in addition to the multiple actions previously documented, the organizers of these events had several targets where different categories of people were to be trained in the context of destabilization. Some related to the creation of chaos, others – people with disabilities, who in some cases are also indiscriminate, had to carry out certain actions. The most serious is that in this process are involved specialized services from outside Moldova, which were and are going to create plans to destabilize the order and security of the state of Moldova.

During the period of work on these compartments, as operational information to the Police, information arrived about the organization of destabilization actions on the territory of our country by specialized services from Russia, during the protests to be held, including for today’s day to be held (…). Our undercover agent who was infiltrated into this whole group came into direct contact with the person both from the Russian Federation, who presented himself under the pseudonym “Main Sandu”, who subsequently directed the actions with another person with citizenship both of the R. Moldova and citizenship of the Russian Federation, but domiciled in Russia. Moreover, this citizen from the Russian Federation, who was to provide training in order to destabilise public order, came to Moldova once more in January, where he took out another passport and repeatedly changed his surname (…).

They were to be organised into 10 groups of 5 to 10 people, who were to be accommodated at certain addresses in the municipality of Chisinau. And this person who came from Russia on 9 March had the objective of going to each address to do the training, to prepare and through direct communication with the person in the Russian Federation, who was coordinating all the measures and activities, to establish further measures (…). You’ll see what were the amounts that were to be given to people with certain insignia who were to stand in front and provide provocation to the security forces and create corridors for other people who were to come from behind and go to destabilization. The amounts for each person are up to 10 thousand dollars (…). The persons communicate very clearly about links with certain opposition forces in Moldova who will provide lawyers, support and the appropriate agreement if necessary (…). These persons were recruited from among people with criminal records and athletes (…).

The operation took place yesterday, 11 March, where 25 persons were picked up and taken to INI. The vast majority of them have started and are working with law enforcement agencies, where they are giving depositions. 7 of them have been detained as leaders of the respective groups (…). Also, a very interesting thing is that this group, which is so well prepared, had the possibility to perfect different identity documents, high quality visas, by using specialized scanners, so that these people could come to Moldova under the cover of different visas of other countries (…)”, said the head of the National Police.

On March 11, representatives of the General Inspectorate of Police (IGP) stated that they have information that on Sunday, March 12, during the protest announced by the “People’s Movement”, which includes the “Shor” party, they intend to “organize destabilizing actions and mass disorder”.

In this context, the IGP asked the organizers and participants “to abide by the legal requirements and not to allow actions that would endanger the life and health of people, as well as the security of the state”.

“We specifically ask public associations with illegal badges and insignia, which move in front of the column of participants to be bare-faced,” the IGP claimed.