Transnistria says perpetrators of last week's attempted attack targeted OSCE delegation

MOSCOW

Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region claimed Tuesday that those who attempted an attack on its leadership were targeting a delegation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Transnistria's official Anatoly Guretsky said the conspirators wanted to kill the leader of Transnistria with a car bomb that was originally intended for a terror attack against the OSCE delegation.

He said a terror attack was planned on Feb. 14 near the Bendery Fortress, when the OSCE Chairman-in-Office and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Northern Macedonia, Buyar Osmani, came for talks with Transnistria leader Vadim Krasnoselsky.

The delegation had 20 people, including Special Representative for Transnistria Thomas Harting and the head of the OSCE mission in Moldova, Kelly Kayderling, he said.

"When a terrorist attack (against the OSCE) failed, President Krasnoselsky became the second target," said Guretsky.

The suspect in the attack, Vyacheslav Kisnichan, dropped the plan because he realized that he would not be able to go through with the plan without causing injury to himself, he said, citing a statement by Kisnichan.

Guretsky claimed last week that "the crime on the directives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was prepared against a number of officials."

The SBU denied involvement in the alleged attack and declared the claims "nonsense," saying that its dissemination shows "a clear goal of Russia to destabilize the situation in the territory that is actually occupied and under its control."