The Biden administration believes that Russia is working to destabilize Moldova, though not necessarily threaten it militarily.
National Security Council coordinator John Kirby revealed to reporters on Friday that Russia is attempting its well-used playbook of how to destabilize a foreign nation, with “the eventual goal of seeing a more Russian-friendly administration in the capital.”
RUSSIA LAUNCHES 'MASSIVE' BARRAGE ACROSS UKRAINE
Russian actors, some of whom have connections to Russian intelligence, will stage and use protests “as a basis to foment a manufactured insurrection against the Moldovan government,” he explained, while other Russian actors will “provide training and help manufacture demonstrations in Moldova.”
The United States has provided Moldova with this intelligence so that it can further investigate and disrupt these events.
Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, said last month she believed the Kremlin was planning “a series of actions involving saboteurs who have undergone military training and are disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions, attacks on government buildings, and hostage-taking.”
In addition to sharing the intelligence with the Moldovan government, Kirby said the administration would look to target and sanction those involved in the destabilizing efforts and was working with Congress to provide it with an additional $300 million in energy assistance to help it strengthen its energy security and to help address needs created by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria has close ties to Moscow, and officials from the area accused Ukraine on Thursday of planning an assassination attempt on its president, which Ukrainian officials denied.
"We have seen Russian officials allege, for instance, that Ukraine is planning to target the separatist region of Transnistria. To be clear, these allegations are unfounded, they're false, and they can create baseless alarm," Kirby added.
The concern is not new, though the Biden administration has made a policy of declassifying intelligence about what Russia is planning in an attempt to preempt the action. The administration is declassifying this intelligence at this time in an effort to deter Russia from moving ahead with these plans, according to CNN.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in mid-February at the Munich Security Conference alongside Sandu that “we have deep concern about some of the plotting that we’ve seen coming from Russia to try to destabilize the government, but appreciate, of course, the efforts that — the good efforts being made by Moldova to protect against that.”
Last October, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned nine people and a dozen entities, including oligarchs “widely recognized for capturing and corrupting Moldova’s political and economic institutions and those acting as instruments of Russia’s global influence campaign, which seeks to manipulate the United States and its allies and partners, including Moldova and Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement.