Security and Intelligence Service announces termination of partnership agreements with FSB and SVR

The Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) informs that on Monday 31 July, “after starting the necessary legal procedures”, it terminated the Partnership Agreement with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB). Official notifications have been sent to the Russian Federation authorities, according to a statement issued by SIS.

At the same time, the Service says it has submitted, through the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, a request to terminate the cooperation agreement with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

“As of 24 February 2022, with the invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, the cooperation relations of the Intelligence and Security Service with the special services of the Russian Federation have been discontinued, so that the given agreements have no practical applicability, being in fact non-functional. The inconsistency and dissonance of the provisions of these agreements with Moldova’s national interest and security are the reasons for the denunciation process initiated by the Intelligence and Security Service,” according to the press release.

SIS representatives claim that, moreover, the provisions of these agreements, signed in 1994, including the additional protocols, were legal clauses invoked by the Russian Federation to “justify the presence of Russian special services representatives in the region of the left bank of the Dniester river of Moldova”.

“Thus, with the denunciation of these agreements, such “arguments” cannot be put forward by the Russian Federation.

The Intelligence and Security Service does not maintain relations of external partnership with similar structures of other states, which clearly defy the legislation and act to the detriment of national security, carry out subversive activities against the Republic of Moldova, including undermining the functionality of democratic institutions of the state, destabilizing the social-political, economic situation and endangering the territorial integrity of the country,” according to SIS.

On Friday, 28 July, the meeting of the Foreign Policy and European Integration Committee approved the consultative opinion on the denunciation of the Agreement on cooperation in the field of training of specialists of counter-terrorism subdivisions in educational institutions of competent bodies of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States, concluded in Ashabat on 5 December 2012.

As the institution responsible for this area, SIS proposed the termination of the agreement, given that “the institution did not benefit from the provisions of the document and did not delegate specialists to carry out studies in the CIS area”.

On Tuesday, 24 July, Jurnal TV published an investigation, in collaboration with journalists from The Insider, in which it is mentioned that the Russians have filled their Embassy in Chisinau with multiple antenna systems, capable of picking up any type of long-distance signals, with 28 such devices installed on the roofs of the two buildings of the diplomatic mission on Stefan cel Mare Boulevard.