Moldovan police said on Friday that they carried out around 50 raids across the country, discovering evidence that an organized group previously trained at a camp in Serbia was planning to spark unrest in Moldova.
“The organized group is suspected of acting with the intention of carrying out large-scale illegal activities in exchange for financial gain,” the Moldovan police said in a statement.
The statement noted that the group had previously been trained at a camp in Banja Koviljača, in western Serbia, and that the goal was “to create social tension, followed by the launch of violent protests aimed at influencing public order and the safety of Moldovan citizens.”
On September 26, police in Serbia arrested two individuals accused of organizing tactical-combat training for Moldovan and Romanian citizens, which was intended to provoke unrest in Moldova.
The arrests came after authorities in Chișinău publicly warned about the existence of combat camps in Serbia, claiming they were organized by the Russian secret service with the purpose of destabilizing Moldova during the country’s recent elections. Moscow has denied these accusations.
Serbian police reported that the training took place between July 16 and September 12 at a catering facility near Loznica in western Serbia, with participation from between 150 and 170 Moldovan and Romanian citizens.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said in October that he could not claim Russian intelligence was behind the camp, but stated that police had detained Serbian nationals “who were available.”
Moldovan police added on Friday that during the raids they seized, among other items, bank cards some issued by financial institutions in Russia over 20 biometric passports with stamps showing border crossings into Serbia, radio stations, binoculars, and various calibers of lethal and non-lethal ammunition.
Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to Radio Free Europe’s request for further information regarding the case.
