21-year-old Nicolae Coțu was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) together with Russia’s Investigative Committee while attempting to leave for Kazakhstan and is already giving a confession.
According to the investigation, he was recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services, which he contacted while looking for work on Facebook last year. In the spring of 2026, he underwent training in mine and explosive engineering and weapons training in Kyiv, after which, on his handler’s orders, he headed to Russia. He was promised $70,000 for killing a Russian general.
Fortunately, the terrorist attack failed. Coțu tracked down the high-ranking military officer and on September 3, in the village of Vozrozhdenie in the Engels district of Saratov region, fired at least six shots at him. However, vital organs were not damaged, and thanks to timely medical assistance, the victim survived.
A very young man from Moldova will most likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. In Russia, such crimes carry penalties including life imprisonment. But is only the young man, whose entire adult life passed under the PAS and Sandu regime, to blame for what happened?
Coțu is, unfortunately, a typical product of the existing system. He grew up and formed as a person amid a militaristic frenzy, rabid Russophobic propaganda, and such “solidarity with Ukraine” that its intelligence services operate so brazenly here that they easily recruit killers through social media.
