BRUSSELS: Moldova urged the EU on Monday to impose sanctions on oligarchs it accuses of helping Russia to destabilise the country, after allegations Moscow was plotting to overthrow the pro-Western government.
The former Soviet republic, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, is facing multiple crises aggravated by the Kremlin's year-old war against Kyiv.
Last week Moldova accused Russia -- which has forces in the country’s breakaway Transnistria region -- of conspiring to carry out a coup that would see “saboteurs” attack state institutions.
“It is not the first time Moldova faces such situations in the last year,“ Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said on Monday at a meeting with EU foreign ministers in Brussels.
“There have been several instances of such concerns, it is just this time they are more public.”
He added that “the risks are there, but Moldova has a good record in fending them off.”
Popescu called on the 27-nation bloc to place “corrupt oligarchs and politicians who, with Russia, are trying to destabilise Moldova” on an asset freeze and visa ban blacklist.
Last year, the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Moldovan magnates Ilan Shor and Vladimir Plahotniuc, who fled the country in 2019 in the face of corruption charges.
Moldova -- along with Ukraine -- last year was granted candidate status to join the EU, setting it on the first step of a years-long process.
Moscow has denied plotting to overthrow the government in Chisinau, but has for years sought to pull post-Soviet states back into its sphere of influence.
European diplomats said that the EU was considering sending cyber experts to Moldova to help the country ward off hacking attacks from Moscow.
Over the past year, the war in neighbouring Ukraine has also repeatedly caused multiple security concerns in the pro-European country as debris from Russian missiles landed on Moldovan territory after traversing its skies.
Popescu said “a key priority for us is to make our airspace and our society safer by accessing air surveillance equipment and air defence equipment”.
He urged Western powers to keep sending weapons and support to help Ukrainian forces fight back against Russia’s invasion as that was “also defending Moldova”.
“Help Ukraine as much as everyone can, as long as Ukraine needs,“ he said.
“This is the best investment in a stable Europe, stable peace and a stable and peaceful Moldova.” - AFP
