Moldova continues probing bid to destabilize parliamentary elections
CHISINAU. Nov 26 (Interfax) - There have been further searches and arrests in Moldova as part of an inquiry into an attempt to destabilize the domestic situation during and after parliamentary elections, Chisinau Prosecutor Viorel Morari told a press conference on Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning, officers from the Fulger (Lightning) special-force battalion conducted searches at the apartments of Mikhail Amerberg, Pavel Grigorchuk and several other activists from the Antifa movement, the prosecutor said. Some of the searches led to the discovery of various types of weapons and large sums of cash.
These people are suspected of setting up a criminal group, Morari said.
"Five people have been arrested; a few more will be brought to the police. All of them were involved in organizing a criminal group which was intent on staging provocations after the elections," Morari said.
For his part, deputy head of the Chisinau General Police Inspectorate, Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, said that, "during searches, police found a large amount of evidence of the plans to stage provocations."
"During searches police found weapons and ammunition, grenades, grenade launchers, TNT, masks and military uniforms. They also found plans to infiltrate a number of government buildings, including that of the Central Election Commission and the Teleradio-Moldova public company. Large sums of cash in (Moldovan) leus, Russian rubles and other foreign currency were found. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars," Cavcaliuc said.
"There is a host of other evidence of plans to stage provocations during the elections," he said. According to the police, various provocations were to be staged on Election Day and the second day after the elections.
Morari said that organizers were hiring young men from poor families. They also established that a teacher and a military serviceman were involved by aiding the group's organizers.
The Moldovan parliamentary elections are due on November 30.
It was reported that two Russians and four Ukrainians, held by Moldovan security offices on suspicion of plotting to destabilize the situation and illegal participation in the election campaign, were deported from Moldova ten days ago.
"(They) plotted acts of destabilizing the socio-political situation in Moldova, as well as various interventions by outside forces in the election campaign in the republic," the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement.
Antifa activist Grigorchuk was arrested but released later on traveling restrictions.
