Moldova Shooting Federation threatened by MIA, MECR and other institutions

Press Release

Date:  September 24, 2021

THE SHOOTING FEDERATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

INFORMS THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE ATTEMPTS OF THE PRACTICAL SHOOTING FEDERATION „TIR PRACTIC” AND THE EMPLOYEES OF THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, CULTURE AND RESEARCH OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA AND THE MINISTRY OF INTERIOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA TO BLOCK THE ACTIVITY OF THE SHOOTING FEDERATION

The Shooting Federation of the Republic of Moldova (RM) is entitled to inform the public that during 2021, it was and is undergoing a strong attack exercised by the Practical Shooting Federation „Tir Practic” (private entity affiliated to Sniping Club PLC), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova (MECR) and Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Moldova (MI).

 The aim of the attack is to abolish the Shooting Federation of the Republic of Moldova and to eliminate it from the register of public organisations of the RM.

These illegal actions are backed by the newly created Practical Shooting Federation “Tir Practic” (2020), which is a member of the International Practical Shooting Confederation IPSC.  These societies are founded by former employees of the Ministry of Interior and special forces of the same Ministry, who are in good relations with the current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Interior.

At the end of 2020, the aforementioned «Tir Practic» Federation requested the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the RM to register the Olympic disciplines Skeet and Trap – without the approval of the National Olympic and Sports Committee of the Republic of Moldova.  The Ministry of Education, Culture and Research registered the Olympic Skeet and Trap disciplines within the Practical Shooting Federation “Tir Practic”, contrary to the fact that these disciplines have been already represented in Moldova by the Shooting Federation, accredited by ISSF, ESC, NOSC.

The „Tir Practic” Federation, being assisted by the administration of the “Sniping Club” PLC, abusively registered the national shooting team at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, including the athletes of the Shooting Federation, based on the results and protocols of the National Championship of the RM on plates, which was organised by the Shooting Federation of the RM.

Although, in the previous years, the plate shooting test, Olympic TRAP and SKEET discipline, was always represented by the Shooting Federation of the Republic of Moldova, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research decided, for 2021, to register the disciplines within the „Tir Practic” Federation thus violating the Law no. 330-XIV of 25.03.99 “On physical culture and sports”, Article 21 paragraph 2, which provides (2) “…for a branch of sport, pursuant to the law, a single national federation may be established.”

We would like to mention that these violations were undertaken by the Ministry of Education without the consent of the National Olympic and Sports Committee, namely, including these disciplines within „Tir Practic” Federation which has no registered Olympic disciplines and is not accredited by the International Sports Shooting Federation ISSF.

Simultaneously with the above actions, the sports “Dynamo” Club, which is a subdivision of the Ministry of Interior of Moldova, undertook the following destructive actions:

  • Prohibited our Federation to offer the address for correspondence and the office and calls on the leadership of the Federation to evacuate from the territory and the club;
  • Insisted on changing the leadership of the Federation through its reorganisation;
  • Introduced a fee for the use of “Dynamo” shooting range for athletes – members of the Shooting Federation of the RM, as well as for members of the national team;
  • Made accountable the coaches and the Federation officials for the non-compliance with the pandemic conditions while participating in the online probes ESC Air Cup – even if all safety and protection measures were observed;
  • Started the procedure of dismissal of the Chief Coach of the National Shooting team, Dynamo Club, member of the Shooting Federation of the Republic of Moldova, Olympic medallist Oleg Moldovan – he had already been fired;
  • Prohibited the access to the territory of Dynamo shooting range to the coaches and athletes of the Shooting Federation, of Sports schools affiliated to our Federation that are not members of the Dynamo Club.
  • Ceased the extension of the agreement on cooperation with our Shooting Federation in view of the development of shooting sports in Moldova;
  • “By miracle” the Ministry of Interior of the RM – lost all the documents/registers regarding the Federation’s weapons – without extending the permission for their use, even for non-lethal compressed weapons.

Immediately after the actions of the Dynamo Club, the employees of the General Police Department of the Ministry of Interior cancelled the general permit for weapons of the Shooting Federation, because of the falsification of documents submitted to obtain the weapons permit, in particular, non-correspondence of the Federation legal address and as a consequence all sports weapons of the Federation were ceased, including the possibility to register and use the weapons offered by the International Sports Shooting Federation, donated to the Federation as humanitarian aid.

All the above indicated preconditions, limited the Federation activity and in some cases impeded the training process of the athletes and the competitions scheduled in accordance with the calendars approved by the Shooting Federation of the Republic of Moldova.

Consequently, the most egregious case took place on September 11, 2021, when the first stage of the National Championship of the Republic of Moldova in trap shooting took place.

General Inspectorate for Investigations, Division No. 2, dealing with money laundering, financing of terrorism investigations and illegal arms, explosives and radioactive substances of DIISBET — blocked the shooting stand of the Association of Hunters, which provided the shooting stands for this competition.  The competition was interrupted by aggressive intimidation actions. The police physically blocked any movement of shooters along the stand; the athletes and the employees of the shooting stand were summoned and threatened. 

The reason for such a serious “special operation” of the agents was the complaint of the leadership of the Practical Shooting Federation “Tir Practic”, in which they indicated that the competition is illegal, that our Shooting Federation has no legal right to organise it, since they did not coordinate the competition unfolding with the relevant Ministry and, that the shooting stand is not accredited by the ISSF.

In such conditions, the Shooting Federation of the Republic of Moldova survives and is trying to operate.

Despite the pressure exercised by private and state entities, the Shooting Federation of the Republic of Moldova tries to defend the performance sports, the athletes and the Federation, in general, in a legal manner.

The members of the Shooting Federation of the Republic of Moldova understand that private business and corrupt officials of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the RM and of the Ministry of Interior of the RM want to abolish the Shooting Federation of the RM accredited by the ISSF and to control all Olympic shooting disciplines and to attract forcefully all the athletes and coaches to train and activate according to their rules.

We are convinced that for them the Olympic sports is not a goal but a means of earning through:

  • tax evasion on the import of weapons, ammunitions, training materials and equipment allegedly intended for sports;
  • dictating the prices and tariffs for access to infrastructure, training materials and weapons;
  • seizure of state property for insignificant values, as ​​in the case of “Dinamo” club;
  • financing from the public budget for sports with the subsequent “fraud” of the allocated resources.

We are obliged to inform the public about what is happening and we hope that the new management of the state institutions mentioned above will pay attention to the illegalities that take place.

Link to: Press Release FTRM 24092021 ENG

 

SHOOTING FEDERATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Adress: 11 Puskin str., Chisinau, MD 2012

Email: shooting.md@gmail.com

www.federatiadetir.md