A Moscow court has approved the arrest of a Moldovan-born energy executive accused of spying for Romania, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported.
A Moscow court has approved the arrest of a Moldovan-born executive of the Russian energy company Inter RAO, for allegedly spying for Romania, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported.
Moscow’s Lefortovsky Court, according to Tass, charged Karina Tsurcan, 42, with espionage and she will remain in jail until August 18 for the investigation. She faces 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The date for the suspect’s examination before the Moscow City Court has not been appointed yet, the court added.
Romania’s government has not commented on the incident, nor replied to BIRN’s request for a comment.
The Russian news agency also quoted a source in Inter RAO energy company who confirmed that Tsurkan was a member of the board and headed the company’s trading division.
Tsurkan’s biography was available on the Inter RAO website on Tuesday, but the information was removed on Wednesday.
Born in Moldova in 1974, she studied in the capital, Chisinau, and graduated with an MBA in Spain.
Inter RAO owns, among others, the biggest thermoelectric power plant in Moldova, located in Cugiurgan, in the Russian-backed breakaway region of Transnistria. The plant is the only source of power for Moldova. In the past, Romania was also a client.
According to Russia’s Kommersant daily, Russia’s FSB arrested Tsurkan on Friday after raiding her office and home.
The newspaper quoted anonymous sources as saying that she had collaborated with businessmen who had links with Romanian intelligence services.
In 2010, Russia expelled a political affairs secretary of the Romanian embassy in Moscow after accusing him of espionage.
Russian media at the time published a video of him allegedly trading military secrets with a Russian citizen. Romania did not comment of that incident, either.
Diplomatic relations between EU and NATO member Romania and Russia have been chilly for years.
Bucharest has staunchly supported an increased NATO presence in the Black Sea to deter Moscow’s ambitions.
At the end of March, in an unusually forward statement, Romania’s Foreign Minister, Teodor Melescanu, who formerly headed Romania’s foreign intelligence agency, the SIE, from 2012 to 2014, said Russian spies had a “very solid presence” in the country.
“I don’t know the exact figures, but we can feel a very solid presence,” he said on March 30.
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