Sabotage or PR? Moldovan politicians decided to frame Transnistria
As if there weren’t enough scandals in pre-election Moldova, here’s another one, and a spy one at that. Four Moldovan citizens (mostly police officers) were arrested on October 7 on the territory of Transnistria. During the day, the Moldovan information field was pretty stormy. And the next day, President Igor Dodon agreed that the detainees would be released. Is everyone happy, is everyone calm? Not yet...
The spy is not impressive
The main episode of the scandalous case is the detention of Moldovan police major Andrei Amarfi in the Transnistrian city of Kamenka, where he lived. The detainee’s wife claims that first unknown people broke out the windows in their house, and when she called her husband and he arrived at the scene, he was “tied up by people with the letters MGB on their uniform.” The head of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova, Ion Mamalige, said that the Transnistrian special services accuse the policeman of “espionage for Moldova.”
It would be strange to assume that the Transnistrian security forces did not know that a Moldovan policeman was permanently residing on their territory. His photo, along with contact details, has long been on the official website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moldova. He lived in Kamenka and went to serve on the right bank.
Actually, the “Kamenska site” has always been considered calm. Typically, disputes between Moldovan and Transnistrian security forces occurred in the Dubossary region - over the organization of elections in Korzhevo. The Moldovan side considers this settlement its own village with a separate administration, and the Transnistrian side considers it a suburb of a controlled city. Well, the right-bank Moldovan villages, which were part of the Kamensky district under the USSR, did not cause much controversy back in 1992; later they were all included in the Floresti district.
Amarfi also served in one of these villages. We are talking about Kunich, a village that is called the capital of the Moldavian Old Believers. As the reader has probably already guessed, this village lives in its own realities, not too connected with the rest of Moldova. And the police station, which was headed by Amarfi, exists there solely on the principle of “because it is necessary.” A prominent and influential officer will not be sent to such a post.
The “Moldavian” side of Amarfi’s activities simply could not interest anyone in Transnistria. But what could he “spy” in remote Kamenka - the smallest town, the center of the smallest region of Transnistria? Perhaps, he could only “monitor” the general mood of the townspeople before the presidential elections in Moldova.
But the Ministry of Internal Affairs is under the control of President Igor Dodon (Minister Pavel Voicu is one of his close associates). And Dodon himself is very interested in the participation of Pridnestrovians in the elections, especially in the second round - after all, they definitely will not vote for his competitor Maia Sandu, a clearly pro-Western politician, and the extra thousand and fifteen votes are not lying on the road.
Where do ears come from?
The first information about Amarfi’s arrest was published by the portal Deschide.md, well known in Moldova. Published with reference to his own sources, at about eleven o’clock in the afternoon (Amarfi was arrested, as far as we know, at about half past nine). About fifteen minutes later, the portal received official confirmation of the fact from the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mamalige. And only then he turned to deputy Kirill Motpan for a comment (in Andrei Nastase’s “Dignity and Truth” party, he, himself a former policeman, is precisely responsible for the “power tactics”).
Andrei Nestase.
And away we go. The "platform" made a fuss. The media, experts and bloggers (all, of course, pro-Western) got involved. Dodon got it personally for being too soft on the unrecognized Transnistrian administration. Then the platform deputies demanded a vote of no confidence in Minister Voic, as well as the head of the Moldovan special services, Alexander Esaulenco. On the morning of October 8, another pro-Western parliamentary party, “Action and Solidarity” (led by Maia Sandu), announced that it was joining the vote against the minister (they expressed ambiguity regarding the intelligence services).
And just three hours later it became known that President Dodon had agreed with the Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky that the detainees (Amarfi is not alone in this case) would be released. The right presented itself as alarmists and critics, Dodon as a problem solver.
But there are a couple of points here. Firstly, Deschide has long been known as a portal that, under any government, has outstanding sources in the police - to the point that competitors from the media have more than once suspected the editors of working at the request of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and some civil activists even called it a “police cistern.” .
Secondly, the portal is clearly pro-Romanian and highly favors the National Unity Party, whose chairman, Octavian Ticu, is being nominated as a presidential candidate. However, they did not approach him (also, by the way, a deputy) for a comment and did not provide him with a reason for PR. And they gave a platform to Motpan, who represents direct competitors (the parties of Nastase and Sandu are clearly disliked by the portal precisely for this reason).
Much falls into place if we remember that the actual leader of the party is not Ticu, but ex-Minister of Defense Anatol Salaru - a man who stands out from other pro-Romanian politicians in Moldova by his great caution and reluctance to appear in the “murky” history. One must assume that he would not have refused to promote his candidate on a “hot” news occasion if he had not understood that the PR would turn out to be a “minus”.
Anatol Salaru.
Why might this be needed?
Could Transnistria be used blindly? Above, we have already tried to explain why Andrei Amarfi could not interest the Transnistrian intelligence services on his own. However, if we assume that the “drain” came from the right bank of the Dniester, that an inconspicuous policeman serving in a village isolated from the world was presented as an agent in order to attract the reaction of the Transnistrian MGB...
This is, of course, just a guess. But the guess is scary. The pro-Western politicians of Moldova were already quite shaken by their horror stories about the “evil Transnistria”. But if “pro-Russian” forces decided to create such an image (not necessarily Dodon himself, the initiator could be someone from his team) - this would already be completely bad news.
However, the story with Amarfi and the other detainees (Dodon first announced two, but later it became known that there were four in total) strangely solves two more problems at once that are urgent for Dodon’s presidential campaign.
First, the “centrist” segment of voters supports Dodon’s statements about preserving Moldovan independence and identity, but at the same time criticizes him for proposals to “federalize” Moldova. Having achieved the release of the police, Dodon, as it were, gets rid of the image of “too pro-Pridnestrovian” - he not only scrapes, but also achieves something.
Not a new scheme, by the way. Communist Vladimir Voronin, who became president in 2001, also achieved the release by the Transnistrian side of the notorious Ilie Ilascu, convicted of organizing a terrorist group during the war in Transnistria...
Secondly, Dodon got a lot of flack from the left for not supporting the leader of the Transnistrian communists, Oleg Horzhan. The deputy of the Supreme Council of Transnistria helped Dodon a lot during the 2016 presidential elections. However, when he was detained in June 2018 and convicted in August, President Dodon “expressed concern” only in November, but did not take serious measures. Apparently, the relationship with Krasnoselsky was more important to him than an ally who had “served his time.”
Freeing at least someone, losing the label of “a president who abandons his own,” is important for Dodon for another reason: Khorzhan is actively supported by State Duma deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. And these are experienced parliamentarians, many who have served several terms, they have their own connections in the Kremlin...
It is worth noting that the Transnistrian special services are saving face to some extent in this situation. The arrest, as far as is known, was carried out “for a period of 24 hours.” Release after the deadline, and not stop the case, but simply keep it under the rug - what could be simpler. And those released may well “fade out” on Moldovan TV channels – let’s see whose.
It is worth noting that the disgraced rightists are already ready to go on the offensive. The leader of the Action and Solidarity parliamentary faction, Igor Grosu, has already stated that we are talking about a “large-scale provocation,” citing some data that he cannot yet publish.
Could there really be a third “leak” and someone from the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Presidency is also helping right-wing parties with information?
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