While Moldova does not currently face “imminent military danger” it is subject to “hybrid warfare generated by Russia” in a bid to “overthrow state power,” Moldovan Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii told AFP in an interview Monday.
Nosatii sat down for an interview with AFP at his office in the capital Chisinau after the latest in a string of anti-government protests erupted over the weekend in the small former Soviet nation.
“Imminent military danger against Moldova currently doesn’t exist, but there are other types of dangers that affect the country’s security — hybrid warfare,” Nosatii told AFP.
By generating “disinformation, tensions inside our society”, Russia was attempting to “change the political order, destabilize and overthrow state power,” the 50-year-old minister said.
Pro-European Moldova has repeatedly accused Moscow of plotting to violently topple its government through saboteurs disguised as anti-government protesters, claims which Russia denied.
“The greatest challenge right now is a set of provocations that the Russian Federation is trying to use to destabilize the situation.”
On Sunday, Moldovan police arrested members of a network seeking to undermine the country that they believe were sent by Moscow.
Authorities said they had acted after “receiving information on the organization by Russian special services of destabilizing actions on our territory via demonstrations.”
The White House on Friday accused Russia of seeking to destabilize Moldova in order to install a pro-Russian government.
