IURIE ROSCA CLAIMS DEATH THREATS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHISINAU 001260 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/UMB E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/19/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV PBTS MD SUBJECT: IURIE ROSCA CLAIMS DEATH THREATS Classified By: Ambassador Asif J. Chaudhry for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: As part of a series of courtesy calls on political party leaders, the Ambassador met on December 17 with Iurie Rosca, chairman of the People's Christian Democratic Party (PPCD). In a rambling 2-1/2 hour long meeting, Rosca described his fundamental political position opposing Russian influence and the presence of Russian troops in Moldova and shared his opinions on the other key political party leaders, most of whom he views as corrupt agents of Moscow. Rosca described a 2005 plot to assassinate him along with President Voronin which, he said was the true reason former Minister of Defense Pasat had been arrested, and went on to talk about a current death threat he had recently received. Several times during the meeting he used the phrase "if I survive," suggesting either that this is a real threat weighing heavily on his mind, or that Rosca was purposely trying to make an impression, with the possible intention of staging a future provocation. Rosca defended his alliance with Voronin as important for fighting Moscow, and suggested that after the 2009 elections he would be ready to make alliances with any party that supported his positions. End Summary. Fighting Russian Presence is Rosca's Highest Priority -------------- ¶2. (C) Iurie Rosca presented himself as a "true Moldovan patriot" and "long-term fighter of Russian imperialism" in Moldova, saying that the highest political priority for Moldova was eliminating Russian influence. In turn, Rosca argued that Russia's key goals in Moldova were to install pro-Russian leadership and to maintain its military presence. Rosca believes that the new geo-political situation created by Romania's membership in EU and Ukraine's stated desire to join NATO, is underlying the Russian strategy of seeking the means to keep its forces in Moldova. ¶3. (C) Rosca defended his 2005 decision to ally with President Voronin and the Party of Communists (PCRM) as correct, saying that the most important factor in choosing this alliance was Voronin's commitment to eliminating the Russian military presence. Rosca believes that originally Voronin had been "invented" by Putin as a political tool, but soon after Voronin came to power in 2001, he surprised Russia by rejecting the Kozak memorandum and rejecting the presence of Russian troops. Rosca said that sometimes it is difficult for the West to understand why he is with the PCRM, when "all normal people" are against the Communists. ¶4. (C) Rosca believes that Voronin has become politically weak. He is old, tired, and cannot implement all the decisions he would wish to because his own entourage (including Tkaciuk and Lupu) is against him. Rosca believes that former President Luchinschi remains powerfully linked to Moscow and very active in Moldovan political life, personally driven by his own ongoing competition with Voronin. The 2005 Political Situation -------------- ¶5. (C) In 2005, according to Rosca, Russia tried to build an opposition to Voronin and, chose as their vehicle Urechean's AMN, which Rosca denigrated as being "the biggest criminal mafia network in the country." He said that some American political instruments (i.e. NDI, IRI) were very active in the pre-electoral period and practically built this alliance, only to find out later it was a Russian game. Then, in the last weeks before the elections, Voronin was supported by three important regional leaders, Georgia's Saakashvili, Romania's Basescu, and Ukraine's Yushchenko, all of whom understood the "war against Russian power." The 2005 Death Threat Against Voronin and Rosca -------------- -- CHISINAU 00001260 002 OF 004 ¶6. (C) Rosca charged that in 2005, the Russians prepared an assassination attempt against him and President Voronin, which was organized by former Minister of Defense Pasat and the FSB. This plot, said Rosca, was the true reason that Pasat had been arrested, not the publicly announced charges dealing with selling airplanes to the U.S., which was just a pretext. Fortunately, someone in Rosca's team had a contact in the Russian secret services structure, in the "Balkans Group," which is separate from the FSB, and warned Rosca of the plot. The plot, said Rosca was that taking into account Rosca's capacity to draw crowds into the streets, they planned to organize a "color revolution" around Rosca. Pasat "and his FSB bosses" came to see Rosca a couple of times to urge him to organize such a mass movement. The plan said Rosca, was that once there were crowds in the streets, Rosca would be killed in such a way that it appeared Voronin was to blame. In response, Voronin would be killed, in such as way as to appear that Rosca's followers had done it for political revenge. Once Rosca was warned, the plot failed, and Rosca survived. The Current Political Situation -------------- ¶7. (C) Taking into account their failures in 2005, Rosca claimed that Russia now better understood how to avoid the same mistakes. Russia planned, he said, to (1) increase its budget for the Moldovan electoral campaign; (2) launch their political project earlier; and (3) cooperate with some groups from Romania. On the Romanian factor, Rosca suggested that Moscow plans to play against Chisinau, like in billards, by using its cue stick to hit the Bucharest ball. ¶8. (C) Rosca the proceeded to discuss each of the key current political party leaders in turn, as follows. He said that Filat is against Russia and pro-West, but seeks to win away PPCD electorate. He suggested that Tarlev's goal was to destroy the PCRM from within by stealing its electorate. Thus far Tarlev has been very successful in building support, and though Tarlev lacks charisma, according to Rosca, he has enough money to possibly win seats in Parliament. Rosca claimed that Bragis and Musuc also figure in Russian political schemes. He said that Urechean's party (AMN) is made up of former Soviet-era nomanklatura and Komsomol leaders. Rosca said that he would try to destroy the AMN, but doubted that he could accomplish this within three months, though he intended to show the public "the dangers posed by Urechean." Rosca said he views Chirtoaca as an honest leader. However, Chirtoaca's main problems were his connections to the "Greater Romania" movement, and his uncle, Mihai Ghimpu. Rosca charged that Chirtoaca and his Liberal Party are subordinate to Bucharest, and proceeded to explain complex Liberal Party links to the Russian mafia through Bucharest. Chirtoaca's Links to Russian Mafia through Bucharest -------------- ¶9. (C) According to Rosca, one of the Liberal Party's key problems was that its main supporter was the Ascom Group, headed by the Stati family (particularly Anatol and Gabriel Stati),which was close to the Iliescu-Nastase team in Bucharest. Stati, said Rosca, held oil interests and was Moldova's richest billionaire businessman. When Lucinschi was president, Stati was close both to the president and the Russian mafia. ¶10. (C) Rosca explained that Anatol Stati has a son-in-law named Anatol Salarov, who had been an MP in Moldova's first parliament. In 1992 when the military conflict ended, the Russians were involved in eliminating Muravski (who Rosca termed a patriot) and installing Andrei Sangheli as Prime Minister from 1992-97, Anatol Salarov helped in electing Sangheli. Salarov had been a leader in the Popular Front, but then became Vice President of the Ascom group. Salarov abandoned his position in the Partia Reformilor, the precursor CHISINAU 00001260 003 OF 004 to today's Liberal Party, and Mihai Ghimpu took over that position. One year ago, after the local elections in which the Liberal Party made such a strong showing in Chisinau, after years of silence Anatol Salarov reappeared on the scene. He visited Bucharest and met with Basescu. Why, questioned Rosca, was the Russian Mafia now linked to Basescu? Rosca went on to suggest that the Ascom group, which was linked with Lucinschi, had coordinated Russia's plans to suport Filat, Tarlev, Bragis, and also the Liberal party. In the last mayoral elections, explained Rosca, the Ascom Group had financed three candidates, but the largest pot of money went to Chirtoaca. Chirtoaca won the elections, and is beholden to Ascom but, suggested Rosca, Chirtoaca was too young and inexperienced to understand the implications of his connections with the Ascom group. The Current Death Threat Against Rosca -------------- ¶11. (C) Rosca said that he feels his life is in danger because he is fighting against both "Russian imperialism" and corruption. Unfortunately, he said, the local mafia and Russian interests were very close. Three weeks ago, just before his planned trip to Kyiv in commemoration of the Ukrainian Famine ("Holodomyr"),Rosca received a call by the intended killer (name sounded like Khoranosht) who said Rosca should come that evening to a certain apartment, and threatened "if you want to survive, you should accept my conditions." Instead of going to that location, Rosca immediately called Head of Moldova's Secret Servies (SIS) Artur Resetnikov and said that he needed help immediately. Additionally he called Minister for Internal Affairs Papuc, but as the minister was not availaQ, reacQd Deputy Minister Valntin Zubic. Rosca said that he was able to document the SMS message he received with the apartment address, and had the number of the caller in his cellphone. Investigation revealed that the intended killer had sQe 50 photos of Rosca showing all entrances and exits from his home, party office and parliamentary office, as well as photos showing his young daughter leaving the house, as well as photos showing all intersections leading to Rosca's residence where a driver has to slow down. Rosca believes that the Russian FSB and Urechean were behind this attempt to kill him, and said his life is still under threat. ¶12. (C) Rosca told a story about a case in which he had helped a businesswoman to survive death threats three years ago. This woman sought his assistance because Ion Plesca, former head of the Judicial Court in Botanica District and officials from the Ministry of the Interior were running a protection racket, but she had refused to pay. She revealed the information to Rosca who then intervened directly in Parliament. As a result, the former Deputy Head of Police in Botanica Murzakov was sentenced to 15 years in prison. It turned out that Murzakov was held in prison in the same place as Pasat. Rosca then explained that Murzakov had protected Pasat, and that there was a connection between Urechean's mafia network and the Russian FSB network. This incident thus linked Pasat's involvement in the 2005 attempt to kill Rosca to a hypothesis that Plesca might have played a role the current plot. Which Parties will PPCD Cooperate With? -------------- ¶13. (C) Rosca said that after the elections he could cooperate with any or all parties. He had no conflict, he said, with any of the politicians. He said that SIS Head Resetnikov expected the PCRM to win the biggest number of votes. However, the PCRM faced challenges both from Tarlev as well as problems stemming from the party's own electoral list. Voronin had promised to promote only young people. Rosca questioned his ability to fulfill this promise, as it alienate the Old Guard party members, leading them to defect to Tarlev or other parties. ¶14. (C) Rosca said he expected to win seats in CHISINAU 00001260 004 OF 004 parliament and after the elections would negotiate with all political parties, proposing the same list of reforms. Rosca argued that Moldova's biggest problem lies in its constitution, which was inspired by the Romanian Constitution. He preferred to model the Moldovan constitution upon the model of more democratic countries, such as Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, or Hungary. Rosca would seek to adopt a constitution where the President cannot dissolve the parliament, as he can under the current constitution. Filat, on the other hand, was proposing to change the constitution to elect the president directly, an idea inspired by Lucinschi, who had never given up the battle to restore the old directly-elected presidential system. Filat, said Rosca, was close to Chiril Lucinschi, the ex-president's son, who now controls TV-7. Rosca said his key concern was not who will be the next president, but how to guarantee democracy. He proposed changes in the size of the majority needed in the parliament in order to elect the president, as well as modifications to the methodology for selecting the Prime Minister. Rosca not Sympathetic on Pro-TV -------------- ¶15. (C) In response to the Ambassador's points on the need for independent media and suggestion that Rosca should pick up the banner of fighting for media freedom, Rosca replied scornfully that there were already too many independent media. He admitted that he was in conflict with Pro-TV, which he charged was "installed by Lucinschi and Russian spies," and "not invited by America." Rosca denigrated the EU efforts in Strassbourg to demarche him on freedom of the media, and defended his own right of freedom of speech to be critical of Pro-TV. He then turned away from the subject of freedom of the press, charging that the international community was so "intoxicated" by the Pro-TV provocation that it did not care that the life of the Deputy Speaker was in danger. Comment: A World of Conspiracies -------------- ¶16. (C) Rosca moves in a world of conspiracies and conspiracy theories. He sees the hand of Russian spies and ex-President Lucinschi as the secret motivation behind most of the forces in Moldova's political arena, and uses these allegations to delegitimize his rivals. While his first reference to Russian spies was intriguing, by the time he blamed these same spies for installing Pro-TV, it was clear that some of these allegations were Rosca's own political projections and not reality. However, it is not clear whether the "death threats" he discussed were real or invented. In 2002 Rosca's deputy, Vlad Cubreacov disappeared under murky circumstances and was reported kidnapped. He reappeared two months later and stuck to the kidnapping story, although party defectors later claimed that Rosca had staged the incident in an attempt to win support for the PPCD. With the party's current weakness in the polls, many people expect Rosca to pull off some dramatic last-minute bid to win back popularity. He may be in the process of hatching a plot in which an attempt on his life is staged, in the hopes of winning electoral support. Or, he may indeed be in real danger and have calculated that there could be some protection value from informing the Ambassador of the United States. The truth is not clear, but sometimes, even paranoids do have real enemies. CHAUDHRY