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
-------------- --

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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

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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

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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