Russia Accuses U.S. of Bid to Oust Pro-Moscow Moldova President

(Bloomberg) -- Russia accused the U.S. of plotting to unseat the Moscow-friendly president of Moldova, Igor Dodon, by encouraging the opposition to prepare for mass protests claiming fraud in case he’s re-elected in November.

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, charged that U.S. diplomats are urging law enforcement bodies not to break up the unrest. Washington is sending experts in so-called “color revolutions” to Moldova, he said, according to a statement on the agency’s website.

Russia has faced off against the West for years over what it describes as efforts to push it out of its sphere of influence among former Soviet republics. The Kremlin has backed Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in the face of weeks of protests over his August re-election, accusing the U.S. and its allies of fomenting the unrest. It annexed Crimea and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine after the pro-Russian president was ousted in a 2014 revolution.

Dodon’s pro-Russian Socialist Party controls a minority government in Moldova that took office in November 2019.

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