The Press Bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR) alleged in a press release on September 23, five days before the parliamentary election in Moldova, that European Union officials, supported by Nato member states, are preparing to deploy troops to Moldova and Ukraine as part of what it described as a plan to impose Russophobic policies on Chisinau.

The Moldovan presidency said in an address to citizens on September 22 that Russian interference and domestic collaborators threaten the country’s sovereignty, independence and European future, calling on voters to reject what it described as an attempt to buy the election.

In the address, the presidency said the Kremlin was “throwing hundreds of millions of euros” at buying votes on both banks of the Dniester and abroad, and accused Moscow of using paid provocateurs to spread lies and foment disorder. 

The office warned of direct and “dangerous” consequences if pro-Kremlin forces gain control, saying European integration and freedom of movement would be jeopardised and that Moldova could become an “infiltration ramp” towards Ukraine’s Odesa region. The presidency also said Moldova’s separatist Transnistrian region could be destabilised.

“The Kremlin believes that we are all for sale. That we are too small to resist,” the address said, adding that those it called accomplices inside Moldova “do not have a country, they only have masters”.

Moldovan authorities have been dismantling groups, financed by Russia, that are preparing to organise civil unrest during the September 28 elections. Large amounts of money, transferred through crypto assets from Russia, have been seized after more searches organised by the police on September 23, according to Deschide.

The SVR in turn claimed that Nato forces are concentrating in Romania near the Moldovan border and that a “landing” is being prepared in the Odesa region to intimidate the Transnistrian region. It further alleged that the first groups of career military personnel from France and the United Kingdom had already arrived in Odesa.

According to the SVR, the scenario has been “repeatedly practised” during Nato exercises in Romania and could be carried out following Moldova’s parliamentary election. The agency accused Brussels and Chisinau of preparing “gross falsification” of the vote, saying European officials feared protests would break out in response. It claimed that, at the request of President Maia Sandu, European troops would then be deployed to force Moldovans to “accept a dictatorship under the guise of European democracy”.

The Russian intelligence service added that Brussels would not abandon the deployment plan even if immediate post-election unrest did not occur, suggesting that provocations against Transnistria and Russian troops stationed there could serve as justification. It said the timeline of November 30, when elections to the Supreme Council of the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic are due, was being considered as a possible moment for escalation.

The statement characterised European governments as “totalitarian-liberal regimes” seeking to demonstrate strength after what it described as failures in supporting Ukraine. “Fearing a direct confrontation with large-scale Russia, the Europeans intend to take revenge on small Moldova,” the SVR press bureau said. “Self-assertion at the expense of the weak has always been an integral part of European colonialism.”