A former Moldovan police chief living in London is recruiting a paramilitary force to topple the government of President Maia Sandu in order to install a pro-Kremlin power in Chisinau, says a report received by the British Foreign Office and quoted by The Times.
The accusations were confirmed by Maia Sandu’s government, which stated that Great Britain has not yet approved the request for the extradition of the officer made by the Moldovan authorities.
The situation was presented on his Twitter page by Maxim Tucker, the author of the article in The Times, who also quoted the chairman of the defense committee in the British parliament, Tobias Ellwood, who said that it was “incomprehensible” why the UK did not extradite the former Moldovan police chief.
“For years London has developed a reputation as a haven for Eastern European oligarchs who often have strong ties to Putin,” Ellwood lamented. “This is finally changing after [the start of the war in] Ukraine, but I met with the Moldovan president 3 times in the presence of a high official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the issue of this extradition request was raised,” he said.
The Times article comes after pro-Russian separatists in Transnistria earlier this week called on Moscow to expand its so-called “peacekeeping” mission in the region by sending more troops. The move was immediately denounced by the government of the Republic of Moldova.
This new escalation of tensions between Chisinau, Tiraspol and Moscow came after on February 13 President Maia Sandu announced for the first time that the authorities in Chisinau were aware of a violent plan by Russia, which includes attacks and hostage-taking, undermining the Republic of Moldova.
A government spokesman in Chisinau told The Times that the former police chief is a key player in Russia’s efforts to topple the pro-Western government. “He used his past connections to recruit ex-policemen for a paramilitary group that ‘protects’ fake demonstrations against the government,” Moldovan parliamentarian Radu Marian also told The Times. “These demonstrations are coordinated with Moscow. We know this from the reports of our intelligence services, the American intelligence services, and the way Russian propaganda presents them as a popular opposition party,” he added.
The British newspaper also notes that the former police chief runs a Moldovan political party from London as a front and that he recently posted photos of him attending the coronation of King Charles III and the Eurovision contest.
The British Foreign Office document on him states that he is at the center of a complex network of Russian proxy actors that is run by the FSB and the Wagner mercenary group. The report claims that the emergence of his political party and security force, called “People’s Shield”, is reminiscent of the so-called “Crimean self-defense forces” that emerged before Russia’s illegal annexation of the peninsula in 2014.
“Equipped with sophisticated communication devices and uniforms of the type used by law enforcement, and wearing official identification insignia, the group of approximately 130 members has the characteristics of an emerging paramilitary group,” the document further notes.