Moldovan secret services cancel agreements with Russian intelligence

BalkanInsight reports that the Moldovan sercret service has quitted a partnership deal with Russia. Caliber.Az republishes the article.

Amid the ongoing rift between Chisinau and Moscow, the Moldovan Intelligence and Security Service terminated its partnership agreement with its Russian counterparts, saying they are carrying out “subversive activities against Moldova”.

The Moldovan Intelligence and Security Service, SIS, said on Tuesday that it has ended its partnership agreement with Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB, after sending official notifications to the authorities in Moscow.

Through the Foreign Ministry, the SIS also ended its cooperation agreement with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, SVR.

The agreements, originally signed in 1994, allow the presence of representatives of the Russian special services in the pro-Moscow breakaway region of Transnistria on the left bank of the Dniester River.

After the agreements are ended, the FSB will have to close its office in Tiraspol, Transnistria’s main city.

According to Moldovan experts and officials, the Russian secret services control the leadership of the security institutions in Transnistria.

“The SIS does not maintain external partnership relations with similar structures of other states that defy legislation, act to the detriment of national security and carry out subversive activities against Moldova,” said the SIS in a statement.

The SIS emphasised that it cannot collaborate with foreign entities that undermine the functioning of the state’s democratic institutions, destabilise the socio-political and economic situation and endanger the country’s territorial integrity.

“Starting on February 24, 2022, with Russian invasion of Ukraine, cooperative relations between the SIS and the Russian special services stopped, so that the agreements have no practical applicability and are actually non-functional,” added the SIS.

The decision comes amid the poorest bilateral relationship between Moldova and Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union and Moldova’s independence in 1991.

Last week, the Moldovan authorities sent home 18 Russian diplomats and 27 technical embassy staff amid an alleged espionage scandal after investigative media outlets reported that Russia had installed 28 antennas at its diplomatic building in Chisinau that could be used for spying or phone-tapping.

The Russian diplomats have until August 15 to leave Moldova.