Russian authorities say a Moldovan citizen, who they say is a former employee of the Moldovan Information and Security Service (SIS), was expelled from Russia in February after he allegedly committed espionage activities. The Moldovan government has not yet commented on the allegations.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) alleges that the Moldovan man entered Russia last year on a mission to collect confidential information on Moscow leadership plans for Moldova and data on employees of special services and other institutions responsible for “foreign policy in the Moldovan direction.”
Russian authorities say the man was trying to legalise his stay in Russia and in case he was exposed “prepared a scenario of fake cooperation, claiming to be working in Moscow’s interests”.
“After interrogation and lie detector tests, it was confirmed that his true purpose was espionage and subversion,” the FSB claimed.
Although the Moldovan citizen’s actions did not cause “concrete harm”, the Russian authorities decided to declare him an undesirable person and ban him from entering Russia for 60 years.