Moldovan prosecutors have charged five more people on suspicion of participating in camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina run by instructors with ties to Moscow.
The investigation involving four men and one woman has been concluded, the Moldovan Prosecutor General’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases announced. They are four Moldovan citizens and one Finnish citizen of Ukrainian origin, all aged between 27 and 50.
According to the Moldovan prosecutor’s office, two suspects, a man and a woman, are charged with participating in the organization. According to the indictment, they were supposed to coordinate groups of participants in violent demonstrations. Both individuals are under house arrest.
They were recruited via the Telegram and Yandex applications by individuals previously accused of participating in the camp.
The three suspects, according to the prosecutor’s office, were also invited to participate in the training by an individual previously accused of participating in the camp. The invitation was sent to them during a sports recreation in Chisinau.
“A female person approached them and suggested ‘sports training’ in Romania that would pay them $400 to $500 per week,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement last week, adding that the money was to be paid in cryptocurrency.
But, according to the Moldovan Intelligence and Security Service, after arriving in Romania, their journey continued to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they were “left without their passports and phones.”
“They were then reportedly transported to a camp in the forest, where there were several tents and computer tables, where other participants were learning how to operate drones. They were reportedly taught by Russian-speaking individuals for one to two weeks. The focus of the training was drone control, tactics to create panic and chaos, breaking through police cordons, and preparing incendiary devices,” the prosecutor’s office said, adding that the participants were also taught “elements of psychology.”
The individuals were arrested upon their return to Moldova, and drones, drone control equipment, cameras, object release mechanisms, and pyrotechnics were seized from one of the detained individuals.
Pamphlets containing verbal and graphic messages of “intolerance and hostility between different religious groups” and promoting the idea of “one religion and one church” intended to create polarization between religious groups were seized from the other suspect.
Detektor previously published research identifying the location of a camp organized in Serbia in 2024, which is linked to a camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina that, according to the Moldovan prosecutor’s office, was located near Banja Luka. Some participants in the camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina also stayed at a camp in Serbia.
The five of them are charged with the criminal offense of organizing or leading a riot, which carries a prison sentence of between four and eight years. The person in whose possession the pamphlets were found is additionally charged with inciting intolerance.
In addition to the above indictment, two separate trials are ongoing at the District Court in Chisinau against a total of four people accused of participating in Russian camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they were trained to cause unrest in Moldova in 2024.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina recently requested from the competent institutions of Moldova to provide information on the participation of citizens of this country in Russian camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Last week, Moldovan police conducted searches at 50 locations and of persons associated with a camp organized in 2025 in Banja Koviljača, Serbia. Like the camps in BiH and Serbia organized in 2024, the camp in Banja Koviljača is linked to foreign instructors, Moldovan citizens, and a plan to cause unrest in the country.
During the search, police seized SIM cards, credit cards, some of which were issued in Russia, Serbian dinars, 20 passports with Serbian stamps, binoculars, and ammunition.
The investigation in Moldova continues, reports BIRN BiH.
