In Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, a demonstration of several thousand supporters of the pro-Russian Sor party took place on Sunday. There were clashes with the police in front of the parliament building, police chief Viorel Cernauteanu said. On the same day, the services detained over a hundred people in connection with the demonstration.
The Moldovan NewsMaker portal reported that the protesters adopted the resolution, with which they entered the government building, where it was officially registered.
The demonstrators demanded the authorities pay their rising utility bills. At the same time, they demanded the resignation of the current authorities and early presidential and parliamentary elections.
Protests in MoldovaPAP/Leszek Szymanski
Clashes took place in front of parliament. The protest organizers wanted to go to the main square, but the police blocked the road with a cordon and police vehicles, the Point portal reported.
READ ALSO: Moldovan police on demonstrations initiated by the Kremlin. “They want to destabilize the country”
Andrei Spinu, the chief of staff of President Mai Sandu, said the demonstration was a failed attempt to destabilize the country. – What took place today in the center of the capital was not a protest. Needless to say, it was a failed attempt on my part Russia destabilizing the situation in Moldova said the official. His statement was reported by the independent Russian “Novaya Gazeta. Yevropa”.
Since the end of February, the Sor party, led by the oligarch Ilan Sor, has been calling anti-government protests. The Moldovan authorities are convinced that the country is threatened by destabilization. The background to these fears is the Russian invasion of Ukrainewhich is adjacent to Moldova.
President Maya Sandu she made a statement on February 13in which she announced that Russia had plans to overthrow the Moldovan government and subjugate the entire country to prevent it from joining the European Union. Sandu said at the time that Moscow relies, among other things, on “criminal groups such as the Sor party.” The Moldovan government has asked the country’s Constitutional Court to declare the Sor party illegal.
Arrests in Moldova
Earlier on Sunday, the police said that they had broken up a network of militants with links to Russia’s secret services, numbering several dozen people. “The network consisted of ten groups of five to ten people,” Viorel Cernauteanu, head of the National Police Headquarters, told a press conference in Chisinau.
He specified that by destroying the network of pro-Russian militants, the attempt to destabilize the Republic of Moldova, which was planned and developed by Russian forces in this country, was thwarted. – These people were recruited into a network coordinated by a Russian intelligence agent. This group includes people with a criminal record, as well as athletes, Cernauteanu added.
Protests in MoldovaPAP/Leszek Szymanski
The Moldovan police also announced on the same day that they had detained 54 people in Chisinau who intended to take part in the demonstration planned that day and “behaved suspiciously.” Among those detained are 12 minors. Prohibited items, including knives, were found on some of the detainees. All those arrested have been taken to the police stations, police said.
On Monday, at the airport in Chisinau, Moldovan services detained a group of 80 young people associated with the Sor party, who returned from a three-day stay in Turkey. According to information from the Moldovan services, the purpose of the trip to Turkey by members and supporters of the SOR party was to train militants to provoke and cause riots during street protests in Chisinau.
Main photo source: PAP/Leszek Szymanski