Police in Moldova kept several thousand demonstrators away from government buildings after officials warned of possible organised disorder at the protest, the latest of a series denouncing pro-European President Maia Sandu, writes Reuters.

The rally followed weeks of competing warnings of impending trouble in ex-Soviet Moldova, where missiles have repeatedly landed near its border with Ukraine during Russia’s year-long invasion of its neighbour.

On Sunday, some 4,500 protesters decrying high prices massed in the capital Chisinau, but police in riot gear set up roadblocks with buses to confine them to a district far from government buildings.

Officials said 54 people were detained on public order violations. Several busloads of demonstrators were kept from entering the capital.

The main force behind the protests is opposition politician Ilan Sor, an exiled businessman convicted of fraud in connection with a USD 1 billion bank scandal.

“Why do Moldova’s Western partners support Maia Sandu, yet shut their eyes when people are kept away from the government to express their needs”, Marina Tauber, head of Sor’s party, told the gathering. “Can you see this in any other European country?”

Andrei Spinu, head of Sandu’s administration, denounced Sunday’s rally as “not a protest. This was yet another attempt by Russia to destabilise the situation in Moldova”.