Bulgarian citizens also took part in this dirty activity, instigated by Russia: destabilization through acts of vandalism and sabotage abroad. "Politico" tells how Moscow recruits personnel for these operations.
Like many other stories in which Eastern Europeans are offered a better life and opportunities for higher incomes in the West, the story of Maxim Roshcha begins in Moldova with a promise of a way out of the dead end in which the worker at a car dealership in Chisinau found himself. There, Roshka meets Anatoly Prizenko, who offers him an all-expenses-paid two-week trip.
A few weeks later, Roshka finds himself in the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Politico reports. There, he is taught in a training camp how to fly drones, how to handle incendiary devices, and how to escape from law enforcement during protests. What are these “camps”? are supported by Russia and aim to recruit agents to carry out destabilization operations on behalf of Moscow across Europe, the Moldovan prosecutor's office says.
Training camps and Russian operations in Europe
After the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin was forced to change its intelligence strategy in Europe - dozens of Russian diplomats suspected of being spies were expelled from a number of European countries, including Bulgaria. The Moldovan prosecutor's office reports that Anatoly Pryzenko was the organizer of a large-scale network for Russia's new agents.
Operations organized by these agents were carried out, for example, in France, where several anti-Semitic events were carried out after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel in 2023. Bulgarian citizens took an active part in one of them, who were brought to trial in Paris. Moldova is now investigating more than 80 people on suspicion of having participated in organizing such mass riots, writes "Politico".
"These young Russian-speaking people were recruited and sent to special training camps", commented the interior minister of the country bordering Ukraine, Daniela Misail-Nikitin. According to her, the training even included providing emergency medical assistance - in cases involving the use of violence.
Maxim Roshka is a witness in the cases that Chisinau is currently conducting. He was captured in October 2024, when the country's police stopped a minibus entering Romania. Serbian and Bosnian banknotes, SIM cards, flash drives, radios and parts for drones, as well as devices used to throw grenades, were found in it. Roshka says he was threatened and beaten after he refused to participate in the training. It took place before the presidential elections in Moldova, and the participants were told that if Maia Sandu won, the country would "have a war like in Ukraine". The instructors at these camps were part of an international network with ties to the Russian mercenary group "Wagner", Moldovan authorities say.
The Bulgarian connection in the preparations for Russian destabilization operations
One of the witnesses in the case reported that he was taken to Banja Luka, where practical training was conducted (for example, on identifying the locations of administrative buildings and exploring places from which drones could potentially be launched), by a man named Mircho. The court documents do not mention this man's last name, but Moldovan intelligence services say that one of the 11 arrested foreign citizens is Bulgarian Mircho Angelov. "Politico" explains that he was one of the instructors in the training camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
Roshka told the journalistic platform BIRN that Angelov was the person who brought food to the participants in the training, but also carried out other logistical activities. Mircho Angelov was sentenced to three years in prison by a Paris court last year for his participation in the operation with the red fingerprints painted on the wall of the Holocaust Museum in the French capital. Angelov is now also on trial in Chisinau on charges of vandalism.
Anatomy of a Proxy Agent
Anatoly Prizenko also participated in a similar crime - he admitted that he organized five Moldovan citizens to paint dozens of Stars of David on buildings in Paris. Prizenko claims that this was in support of European Jews. The French government described Pryzenko's actions as part of an "opportunistic and irresponsible strategy aimed at taking advantage of international crises to create confusion and create tension in public debate in France and Europe."
Prizenko initially worked as a distributor for the Swedish cosmetics company ” Oriflame ” in Moldova. Then, from ” an apple seller in Moscow ” he started ” building a business in Moldova ”, his wife said in 2019. Years earlier, Prizenko was briefly detained in connection with an investigation into a Ponzi scheme involving Russian assets. He later campaigned for a political party that wants close trade ties with Russia and Belarus. Moldovan prosecutors believe he worked with ” a ” higher-ranking” Vladimir Firsov, who is believed to be based in Russia. And the operations were orchestrated by Russian services, Moldovan officials told Politico.
Pryzenko denies acting as a recruiter for destabilizing operations and insists he only helped people enroll in recreational camps. Cases like the one against Pryzenko show how networks targeting Moldova have expanded their operations beyond the country's borders, Politico writes.
According to Moldova's interior minister, recruiters for operations like these targeted "vulnerable young men" with no criminal records and EU passports, possibly as young as 14 or 15. As an example, she cited a recent plot to assassinate Ukrainian officials that has been under investigation since February of this year. The operations carried out in France, such as drawing Stars of David or red handprints, involved citizens of Eastern European countries, including Moldova, Bulgaria and Serbia.