Moldovan police have cracked down on a scores-strong network of subversive operatives tied to Russia’s secret services, the Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported on Sunday.

“The network consisted of 10 groups comprising five to ten people,” the chief of Moldova’s National Police Headquarters Viorel Cernauteanu said on Sunday at a press conference in the Moldovan capital of Chișinău.

Thanks to the dismantling of the network of pro-Russian militants, the Russian secret services’ plan to destabilize the Moldovan state was jeopardized, Cernauteanu stressed.

“These individuals were recruited for a network that has been coordinated by a Russian intelligence agent,” the official said, adding that “people with a criminal record and sports people are part of the network.”

Having landed at a Chișinău airport while returning from a three-day trip to Turkey, a group of 80 young adults tied to the opposition and pro-Russian Sor party were detained by Moldovan law enforcement on Monday.

Information acquired by Moldovan security services suggests that the group underwent a provocation and riot training in Turkey to then cause chaos in the streets of Chișinău in demonstrations against the pro-Western government of Dorin Recean and President Maia Sandu.