The former deputy of the Information and Security Service, Alexandru Balan, was exchanged on April 28 as part of a multilateral operation involving several states. According to IPN sources familiar with the details of the operation, his inclusion on the exchange list was requested by the Russian side.
According to two sources who requested anonymity, discussions regarding a possible exchange began at the end of February – beginning of March 2026. In total, Moldova, Russia, the USA, Poland, Belarus and Romania were involved in the large-scale operation.
In the exchange, Balan was traded for a Polish citizen (presumed to be the journalist and activist Andrzej Poczobut), as well as for one of the two employees of the Moldovan special services detained in Russia in 2025. The second employee, according to sources, was exchanged for the wife of a GRU agent (Main Intelligence Directorate of Russia), who had been held in Penitentiary No. 13 in Chisinau.
Balan was extradited from Romania to the Republic of Moldova based on a request from the Ministry of Justice and a court decision from April 15. Despite the pronounced sentence, the authorities in Chisinau initially did not consider the actual execution of the punishment on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. After extradition, Balan was pardoned by President Maia Sandu, subsequently stripped of the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova and handed over to the Russian Federation.
Its exact location is currently unknown. From Penitentiary No. 13, he was transported through Chisinau International Airport to Poland and from there he will be transported to Moscow.
On April 15, the Chisinau Court sentenced Balan, in absentia, to one year and six months in prison for attempting to disclose state secrets. Previously, in 2025, he had been detained in Romania, where he was targeted in a separate treason case. According to the investigation, Balan is accused of having transmitted information to agents of the KGB Belarus.