Alarming news: An outspoken Russophobe returns to the post of head of the Border Guard Service of Moldova
While the President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, verbally declares her desire to normalize relations with Moscow, people with openly Russophobic views are appointed to the highest posts in the state and army, who do not hide their hostile attitude towards Russia.
Graduate of the Moscow Academy of State Security
In particular, Colonel Rosian Vasiloi, who became famous for his repeated scandalous statements against Russia and Russian peacekeepers in Transnistria, was returned to the post of head of the Border Police.
In 1994, this person graduated from the Academy of the Ministry of State Security of the Russian Federation in Moscow (created by the union of the KGB Higher School and the Border Service Academy, now the Academy of the FSB of the Russian Federation). He served in the Border Police for 23 years. Worked at the OSCE Center in Bishkek on the territory of Kyrgyzstan.
In 2012, Rosian Vasiloi was appointed to the post of Deputy Chief of the Border Police. His protégé was Dorin Recean, the then Minister of Internal Affairs of Moldova - a member of the team of Prime Minister Vlad Filat, who was subsequently fired for corruption and sentenced to 9 years in prison for grand theft.
In the same years, Vasiloy became an expert in the field of security at the Institute of Development and Social Initiatives The future (“Future”) - one of the most famous grant-eating organizations in Moldova, whose director Igor Munteanu was the Ambassador of Moldova to the USA, and then a deputy from Andrei Năstase’s party “Dignity and Truth”. Anti-Russian recipes The future actively implemented the regime of oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc: thus, on the initiative of this organization, Dmitry Rogozin was declared persona non grata in Moldova.
“Russian pseudo-peacekeepers must leave!”
In 2017 (the very height of the Plahotniuc regime) The future published a report Rosiana Vasilya on the topic “Risks to security and defense in the context of the Transnistrian settlement”, permeated with an openly anti-Russian spirit. Among the recommendations, Vasiloy offers:
replacing Russian military peacekeepers (in relation to them Vasila uses the term “so-called”) with an international mission with civilian police status (MISCP) “with a clearly defined mandate and transparent terms of reference” under the flag of the UN, the European Union or the OSCE;
development of measures to regulate the activities of the Operational Group of Russian Forces (OGRF) with their provision to the Russian Federation, and in case of refusal by Moscow, their unilateral use;
introduction of a mechanism for “demilitarization, decriminalization and democratization” of Transnistria (and Russia will be offered to parachute its military personnel to the “Motherland”);
changing the negotiation format for the Transnistrian settlement “5+2” to “7+”, with the status of the USA and the EU increasing from observers to full participants;
if Russia delays the process of withdrawing its military personnel and arsenal, the imposition of “reasoned sanctions” on Russia;
as part of the demilitarization of the Security Zone - the dissolution of “paramilitary forces”, the dismantling of weapons and military equipment under the control of “international partners” (that is, the USA and the EU);
the EU's transition from a neighborhood policy to an enlargement policy towards Moldova;
continuation of joint Moldovan-Ukrainian control on the “Transnistrian section of the state border of Moldova”;
monitoring the activities of “so-called high-ranking officials of the Transnistrian region”, coordinating their movement, up to banning their departure from the territory of Moldova.
According to Vasilioi, the state border of Moldova is a “red line” and “is not a subject of bargaining.”
Before heading the Border Service for the first time under the government of Maia Sandu in July 2019, Vasiloi took part in a number of political actions, including anti-Russian ones. In 2017, he participated in a protest at the Russian Embassy demanding to ensure the unhindered activities of educational institutions subordinate to the Ministry of Education of Moldova in the territory of Transnistria. These institutions have long turned into centers of Romanian nationalist propaganda among Transnistrian children. There they teach the subject “History of the Romanians,” in which Russia is represented as the occupier, and Romania as the liberator.
“The Transnistrian group threatens Ukraine”
In November 2019, with the fall of Sandu's government, Rosian Vasiloi resigned. Subsequently, after Maia Sandu’s victory in the presidential elections, Vasiloi was listed as a contender for the positions of Minister of Internal Affairs and Secretary of the Presidential Security Council, but it did not work out. But at this time he is particularly active in the Ukrainian direction: he visits the positions of Ukrainian security forces in the combat zone in Donbass, and gives interviews to Ukrainian media.
Thus, on April 14, 2020, in an interview with the Ukrainian website Defense Express, Vasiloi stated that “the army of Transnistria is preparing for military operations - both against Moldova and against Ukraine.” He argued that in the first scenario, a 7-strong (!) group would try to cut Moldova off from the Danube Delta. According to the second, he will take part in the operation to create a corridor between Transnistria, the “temporarily occupied Crimea” and Donbass along the Black and Azov Seas. In the same interview, he criticized the OSCE mission in Moldova. According to him, the OSCE in Moldova is “nothing”, “does nothing, is not able to respond to changes in the situation in the Security Zone, is limited in its actions, because everything must be coordinated with the separatist authorities.”
“I look at Ukraine with white envy”
On March 13, 2021, Rosian Vasiloi took part in a joint Ukrainian-Moldovan online conference “Russian influence on the situation in the Republic of Moldova: political and security aspects,” which quite naturally took the form of an open anti-Russian sabbath. In his speech, Vasiloi made another series of scandalous statements:
“There are occupation troops on our territory. And I do not divide them into the OGRF, the so-called peacekeeping contingent and the Pridnestrovian security forces. All these are occupation troops, which have been a single whole for many years. The only thing is that Putin did not issue a decree, as in Georgia, that the so-called troops. Transnistrian region are part of the RF Armed Forces. Everything else is the same.”
“Russia has been waging war against Ukraine since 2014.”
“The Constitutional Court [controlled by Plahotniuc. – V.B.] in May 2017 made a determination that there are occupation forces on the territory of the Republic of Moldova,” but, unfortunately, subsequently the government and parliament did not develop a block of normative acts in this regard.”
“Russia has influence on certain politicians in Moldova. For 30 years, Russia exploited the weaknesses of the Moldovan political establishment. The current state of information security in Moldova does not allow us to educate our citizens in the spirit of resilience. I look at Ukraine with white envy. The authorities and NGOs pay attention to this there, but this is not done here.”
“Until we free the parliament from this trash [speech in March 2021 – V.B.], we will not establish bilateral relations between Moldova and Ukraine in the field of security.”
Rosian Vasiloi made a new series of accusations against Russia in June 2021, in an interview with an anti-Russian and Romanian-unionist portal Open.md. Russia, according to him, invests more in strengthening the defense capability of Transnistria than the PMR authorities themselves. He accused the OGRVA of directly training the Pridnestrovian military under their supervision. “These troops use the latest generation of equipment and weapons, such as those used by Russian troops in Syria and Ukraine,” Vasiloi said.
The post of head of the Border Service is a less significant sinecure for the professional Russophobe Vasily than the positions of Minister of Internal Affairs and Secretary of the Security Council, which he may have been counting on. But this post also gives him leverage to implement his views. In addition to possible provocations in the Security Zone, Vasiloy, according to a number of media outlets and telegram channels, may continue to spread information fakes while already in official status.
The mere fact that there is a place in Sandu’s team for a person with such inadequate views testifies to the true sentiments of the head of Moldova and her inner circle. Russia should have no illusions about constructive dialogue with these people.
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