Eurasia Press & News
The Insider received access to correspondence in Telegram, former head of the General Staff of Moldova Igor Gorgan with its curator from the GRU, Colonel Alexei Makarov, Gorgan regularly reported on the internal political situation in the republic and transmitted data on the visits of representatives of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, who purchased military equipment and shells for their armed forces. The Moldavian liaison worked in the General Staff until the end of 2021, until the new president Maia Sandu sent him to resign. And on the eve of the mass expulsion from Moldova of Russian spy diplomats in July 2023, he took a job at the UN. Using its old ties to the Ministry of Defense of Moldova, Gorgan remains an important informant of the GRU.
The investigation was conducted in conjunction with the publication “Little country” (Moldova)
Igor Gorgan and Alexey Makarov began to contact especially actively in April 2022, that is, after the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Confidential meetings were mainly held in Chisinau cafes or fishing: I can meet anyone, I am a person of action, you need to move forward faster!!! We’ve got to go fishing and talk about it! We live in historical times! And we’re making this story! One of the letters of the Moldovan general says.
Judging by these reports, the GRU was especially interested in what weapons Kiev is buying in neighboring countries, including Moldova. General Gorgan immediately reports: Ukrainian Ukroboronexport is trying to buy from Moldova (or take away with the help of partners 6 Mig-29, who are in the Markulles. They insist very strongly… The planes are still there. The operation is to be forwarded through a front company from the United Arab Emirates in the near future.
On the same day, another message: “Railway trains with fuel” come from the territory of Moldova, namely from the village of Etuliya I to the village of Ukraine, Reni. The composition with fuel moves only at night, during the day it stands still, so as not to become the target of the Russian Federation.
“Thank you, Colonel Makarov answers.
Another message to the curator did not have to wait long: the Ukrainians have been walking around our Ministry of Defense for 3 weeks and asking everything in a row, especially shells to the artillery.
They did not give rest to the agent Gorgan and the supply of weapons to Ukraine through Romania, and he gives advice to Colonel Makarov: “Well, close the border with Romania! This is a big hole! From there, a lot of cargo comes to Ukraine. Especially military cargo! The Romanians still have some military factories for the production of weapons and ammunition.
The biography of Gorgan’s agent is very typical of an officer of the Soviet Army who found himself in the CIS country. He was born in 1969 in the Moldovan Dubossary. After the service, he entered the Combined Arms Higher Military School in Novosibirsk, which he graduated in 1991. Returning to an independent Moldova, Gorgan first served in the airborne division in the Odessa region, and then the commander of the 2nd motorized infantry brigade in Chisinau.
In 2001, a prospective officer was sent to the U.S. Army’s College of Command and General Staff at Fort Livingworth. Since 2003, he has participated in NATO international missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Iraq.
In 2013, the general took the post of Chief of the General Staff of Moldova, but as a result of a conflict with then-Defense Minister Anatol Shalara, he had to leave the military department. In 2019, after the victory in the presidential elections, the protege of Moscow Igor Dodon Gorgan again headed the General Staff. In this chair, he stayed until September 2021, until the new President Maia Sandu resigned.
Meanwhile, many Gorgan proteges remained in the Ministry of Defense of Moldova, who provide him with secret information. Here’s what he says to his friend by correspondence:
Representatives of Ukraine came to representatives of our Ministry of Defense to find contact with the military plant MESON. This is a former radio electronics plant in Chisinau. He produced various electronics for the needs of the Soviet army. Now the representatives of Ukraine are very interested in repairing and transferring technical documentation for the tactical complex POINT-U!!! It applies to the radio-electronic component of this complex, which was produced in Chisinau. First of all, we are talking about electronic control units POINTS-U!!! This contact happened yesterday!! They from Ukraine called one of our officers from the General Staff and asked for help.
In the Ministry of Defense of Moldova left many proxes of Gorgan, who supply him with secret informationThere are associates of Gorgan and among officials on the ground. So, one of them sent a document that at the military training range of Bulboak there are training shootings of the army of Moldova. Of course, the paper immediately went to the headquarters of the GRU.
In addition to military information, Agent Gorgan transmitted information about the internal political situation in the leadership of Moldova and carefully monitored the public speeches of President Maia Sandu, as indicated by dozens of references sent to the curator. To Ms. Sandu, the general feels a special hatred, because she deprived his chair in the General Staff: … She’ll do another thing – I’m going to do, he signaled Makarov.
When Gorgan came to the representative of the GRU and offered his services, it was not possible to find out. A source from The Insider in military intelligence suggested that most likely active contacts began in 2004, when Gorgan served in a NATO mission. At least it is known that before Colonel Makarov, he was in an undercover relationship with the Russian military attache in Chisinau, Vadim Ukhnalev. He was spying to Moldova in Lithuania, but he was somewhere in the world, and he was urgently recalled. Now Colonel Ukhnalev holds the post of military attache in Kazakhstan, where he established active contacts among the military leadership.
After the departure of Ukhnalev, Gorgan was in charge of another military attache – Igor Dovbnya. The Insider and the Little Country has a recording of a telephone conversation between Gorgan and Dovbney, where they agreed to meet and discuss the memorial to the dead Afghan soldiers in Chisinau.
The Insider has audio recordings of Gorgan’s conversations, and when comparing his voice on these records with open source samples, it becomes apparent that the same person is saying.
Telephone conversation between Gorgan and Dovbney
In 2017, Dovbny was expelled from Moldova for espionage activities, now he heads the apparatus of the Russian military attaches in Kyrgyzstan and actively establishes contacts with former Soviet army officers and veteran organizations living in Bishkek.
Since 2019, the “Schef” over Gorgan has passed to Colonel Makarov, who served in the military attachath of the Russian Embassy. In 2001, Makarov graduated from the Moscow Higher Commissar Command School, and from there he was transferred to military intelligence. In the capital address base indicated the address of the Colonel – the headquarters of the GRU on the Khoroshevskoe highway 76 ?b.
Moldovan investigative journalists specializing in Russian espionage have repeatedly noticed General Gorgan at the Russian Embassy in Chisinau, and once during a confidential meeting with Makarov.
Judging by the correspondence, there was a very friendly relationship between the agent and the curator. For example, the general complained to the yaruushnikov that he could not send a money transfer to Novosibirsk for his daughter. At the same time, he is constantly “bombiling with Makarov” reports that everything in Moldova is ready for the introduction of Russian troops: “We urgently need to cleanse the country from any fascist mraz!!! A lot of people are ready. Pass it… the time has come. I keep the whole situation in the army under control… Here, to the joy, no Azov and other national formations, and with politicians we will understand quickly.
There was a very friendly relationship between the agent and the curator.How the general was going to deal with politicians, it is not difficult to guess.
On the eve of the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from Moldova in July 2023, Gorgan ceased to communicate and joined the UN Office for Refugees in Chisinau (UNHCR-Moldova).
The Agency takes on the registration of all internally displaced persons from Ukraine and helps them with the arrangement in a new place. The irony is that Gorgan, who recently proposed to impose a blockade on Ukraine, is now engaged in the delivery of humanitarian aid for Ukrainian children.
