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The Municipal Court in Chisinau on Friday convicted Aliona Gotco, Ludmila Costenco and Vladimir Harcevnicov of involvement in subversion training in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in 2024 – part of a Russian-linked scheme to undermine Moldova’s pro-EU orientation.
Gotco was sentenced to four years and one month in prison, Costenco to four years, and Harcevnicov to five years and four months. “The sentence can be appealed to the Court of Appeal within 15 days,” the court stated.
None of the defendants attended the verdict and arrest warrants have been issued for them.
In September 2024, Chisinau’s intelligence service, the SIS, received information that Moldovan citizens were being trained in camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia by Russian instructors.
The alleged goal was to create chaos during that year’s presidential elections and the simultaneous referendum on Moldova’s commitment to joining the EU, which Russia opposes.
A month later, Moldovan police arrested several hundred people in raids linked to training sessions in the Balkans, but also in Russia.
Defendants Gotco, Costenco and Harcevnicov pleaded not guilty to charge of plotting unrest, but admitted to attending the camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina was located north of Banja Luka, in the village of Glamocani.
The participants were brought to the camp from Serbia, but were not told the full details before arrival. Testimonies described training in drone control. In addition to standard equipment, the drones were equipped with mechanisms for dropping smoke devices or shock bombs.
The instructor in charge of the drones, according to testimonies, was Russian and was called ‘Viktor’ by the camp participants, but his full identity was never revealed.
According to Moldovan intelligence, Russian mercenaries previously linked to the Wagner Group also played a role in training Moldovan citizens.
Despite the evidence and confessions, politicians from Bosnia’s Serb-led entity Republika Srpska, including Milorad Dodik, have denied the existence of the camps. The Russian embassy in Sarajevo shares the same position.
An investigation into the Russian camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the state Prosecutor’s Office in Sarajevo is still ongoing.
In a separate incident, Serbian police in September 2025 arrested two people suspected of organising training for Moldovans and Romanians in subversive tactics intended to cause unrest and disrupt Moldova’s parliamentary polls that month.
Serbian authorities said more than 150 Moldovan and Romanian citizens were trained at a holiday camp in western Serbia.
“I cannot claim that a Russian intelligence service was involved, but we have established the presence of three Russian citizens at the Suncana Reka camp,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
Around the same time, Moldovan authorities launched a major series of raids targeting the network allegedly responsible for training people in Serbia, under the supervision of Russian agents, to sabotage the parliamentary elections.
