Pro-Russian oligarch Ilan Shor is funneling money from Moscow to Moldovan anti-government movements to buy votes, according to a report by a Moldovan journalist who infiltrated his camp for three months.
Moldova sentenced Shor to 15 years in prison in absentia and he currently in lives in Moscow. He was involved in Moldova’s biggest ever corruption case in which one billion dollars was stolen from Moldovan banks, from 2012-2014, the equivalent of 12% of the country’s GDP at the time.
The former banker turned politician wants to stage a return to Moldova and is working to destabilize the political situation in the former Soviet republic, by financing various parties and paying people to participate in anti-government protests, authorities in Chisinau say.
Journalist Mariuta Nistor changed her name to Ana Nastas and infiltrated his operation on June 26.
“For three months I documented the situation inside with a hidden camera to see how the money circulates and how the people who work for Ilan Shor, in the service of Moscow, are recruited to his camp,” she said in a report published on the Moldovan site “Ziarul de Garda”.
“What is at stake is the hijacking of the country’s European course by compromising the October 20 referendum and the vote for a candidate supported by Shor, who will be announced just one day before the elections,” she wrote in her investigative piece published by Ziarul de Garda known as ZdG.
Her investigation appears to confirm what Moldovan officials have been saying for months,. They accuse Moscow of paying for influence campaigns and financing pro-Kremlin opposition parties that aim to oust pro-Western President Maia.Sandu and replace her with a pro-Russian candidate. Moscow has denied seeking to influence the elections
Working undercover, Mariuta Nistor took part in protests financed by Shor and distributed leaflets. She received her first money after two months in a bank account at a Russian state bank.
She participated in protests organized by Shor’s people before and after court hearings, at electoral meetings. The leaflets contained false information about the European Union and the Eurasian Union.
After gaining the trust of Shor’s people and almost two months in his service, she received 15,000 Russian rubles – the equivalent of about 3,000 Moldovan lei, just 150 euros.
She ended up with even less,after intermediaries took a cut. In October, another 15,000 rubles were transferred to her account. She received calls “from Moscow” to thank her for her work.
Registered as an activist, she was assigned a link that she would use to “recruit” other sympathizers. Each sympathizer attracted to the group meant extra money for each activist and potentially extra vote for Shor’s parties.
During the investigation, she discovered that Shor’s people coordinated electoral meetings for former prosecutor Victoria Furtuna, who’s running for president in the Oct. 20 poll.
At the beginning of October, Viorel Cernăuţeanu, head of the General Police Inspectorate, and Veronica Dragalin, head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, said over 130,000 citizens had received money from the Russian Federation through the voter corruption schemes set up by Ilan Shor.
In September alone, the police documented transfers of over 15 million dollars from Moscow to Shor’s network in Moldova.
Reached in Moscow, Shor defiantly declared that the money transfers and the number of people involved were much higher than what police and prosecutors had announced.
Just one day after the police briefing, “Ana Nastas” was informed by the Russian bank Promsviazbank that another 15,000 rubles had been transferred to her account.
“Despite the searches and revelations made by the police, Shor’s structures continued their activity unhindered. The same day, October 4, she was invited to a meeting “ by Shor’s people.
On October 9, she ended her undercover mission and revealed her true identity to her “party colleagues”. Taken by surprise, they were evasive, berated her and claimed they had done nothing illegal.
Ziarul de Garda will publish part two of the revelations.
Romania PM: Russia desperately trying to derail Moldova from path to EU
