Ambassador of Russia to Moldova Oleg Vasnetsov called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moldova after the publication of an investigation by The Insider and Jurnal TV about agents and listening devices on the territory of the Russian diplomatic mission in Chisinau. After hearings at the department, Oleg Vasnetsov said that the scandal was just a pretext for a decision made long ago to cut the diplomatic staff:
“This whole so-called spy scandal is just a pretext for a decision made a long time ago to reduce the diplomatic staff. This was announced to us today. From our point of view, this seriously undermines possibilities dialogue between the two countries. This decision is absolutely not in the spirit of our friendly countries. The decision may be expected, but we did not think that official Chisinau would get involved in a competition in Russophobia with such speed and take such drastic measures. We hope that the responsible persons who make such decisions understand how all this can turn out in the future.”
Vasnetsov also noted that the antennas mentioned in the investigation were installed during the construction of the embassy building in the late 90s. “If you look closely, a lot of the antennas are rusty and so on. If there were very good telephony and the Internet, it would probably not be necessary to constantly update them. Moreover, all these antennas are bought on the local market, from local providers,” the Russian ambassador said.
Earlier today, Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said that the number of diplomats from the Russian Embassy in Chisinau would be reduced after the publication of the investigation.
As Igor Zakharov, adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova on communications, specified, the authorities decided to expel 18 diplomats and 27 representatives of the technical staff of the Russian embassy. Thus, 10 diplomats and 15 technical staff will remain in the Russian embassy.
On the eve of The Insider reported that on the roof of the Russian embassy in Chisinau, the number of dishes and transmitting devices is growing every year. Also, secret liaison officers from the GRU and SVR often appear there, closely associated with the hacker groups that hacked into the mail of Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Hillary Clinton.
As the investigation showed, especially often the movement on the roof takes place before the presidential elections, parliamentary elections or visits of foreign delegations to Moldova. So, for example, it was on the eve of the Eurosummit held on June 1, and in May after a hacker attack on government networks, when thousands of secret documents fell into the hands of malefactors.
