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Category: moldova

  • Ukraine Encroaches On ‘Friendly’ Moldova

    Ukraine has encroached westwards over the past year on its friendly neighbour Moldova, a country that has stood by Kyiv against the Russians and sheltered thousands fleeing the war with Moscow, to build hydroelectric dams in a bid to overcome a crippling power shortage, people close to the matter said.

    Troops, engineers and construction workers from Ukraine — which is engaged in a disastrous war with Russia since February 2022 and unsure of continued U.S. assistance under President Donald Trump — entered Moldova without informing its poorer, landlocked neighbour which also shares its border on the west with Romania.

    The post Ukraine Encroaches On ‘Friendly’ Moldova appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Moldova Could Become a Powder Keg of the European Union

    In the last decade, there has been a growing concern about a democratic deficit in Europe, while the liberal mainstream has replaced all other forms of thinking from the socio-political landscape. Moldova — where pressure on the opposition and independent media increases every year, and the ruling party always has the last word on all political issues — is not an exception.

    Since Maia Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) came to power in 2021, political pluralism and freedom of speech in the country have essentially ceased to exist. Against the backdrop of rapidly rising prices and poverty levels, the Moldovans began to hold mass protests demanding the government resignation. The authorities responded by shutting down a number of television channels and electronic media outlets under the pretext that they allegedly were spreading pro-Russian propaganda and provoking contradictions within the state. Later, a “hunt” for undesirable politicians and a fight against opposition parties began in the republic. Thus, in 2023, at the request of the government, Moldova’s Constitutional Court declared the Șor Party unconstitutional, and in May 2024, the country’s Justice Ministry asked a Chisinau court to place restrictions on political activities by the Chance Political Party.

    After the constitutional referendum was held on the same day as the presidential election in 2024, tensions within the country grew even deeper. Sandu was accused of intending to use the plebiscite to save her declining popularity amid the economic crisis and protests. According to the results of the referendum on EU membership, 50.35% supported the amendments; however, some opposition parties did not recognize the results of the vote. The dissatisfaction of Sandu’s opponents was also facilitated by the results of the presidential elections, which Party of Socialists of Moldova(PSRM) called dishonest and undemocratic, pointing to the unreasonable reduction of polling stations, blocking voters’ access to ballot drop boxes, as well as cases of falsification.

    Moldova is currently positioning itself as a democratic and liberal country. However, is this actually true? Numerous arrests of activists, the suspension of broadcasting of television channels as well as blocking of dozens of information sources that have opinions different from those of the government – does not all this indicate a complete elimination of freedom of speech and pluralism in the country? Moreover, the presence of a single “correct” opinion within the divided Moldovan society could lead to a situation where part of the population begins to turn towards a more extreme and radical opposition, prepared to engage in conflict with the current authorities. Thus, with its actions, Sandu’s team is paving the way for the emergence of far-right political parties in the country, similar to Alternative for Germany and Freedom Party of Austria. Increase in the number of such parties could lead to instability not only at the local level, but could also completely undermine the already fragile political situation within the EU. In this scenario, the prospects for cooperation between Europe and the United States would become even more dim.

    The post Moldova Could Become a Powder Keg of the European Union first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Moldova’s Sandu Calls On Lawmakers To Merge EU Referendum With Presidential Poll

    Vladimir Putin has claimed a fifth presidential term with a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election that has been condemned by the West as neither free nor fair as the Russian leader seeks to prove overwhelming popular support for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and increasingly repressive policies.

    With 99.75 percent of ballots counted, Putin won another six-year term with a post-Soviet record of 87.29 percent of the vote, the Central Elections Committee (TsIK) said on March 18, adding that turnout was also at a “record” level, with 77.44 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.

    The 71-year old Putin — who has ruled as either president or prime minister since 2000 — is now set to surpass Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s nearly 30-year reign to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than two centuries.

    “This election has been based on repression and intimidation,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists in Brussels on March 18 as the bloc’s foreign ministers gathered to discuss the election, among other issues.

    The March 15-17 vote is the first for Putin since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that has killed tens of thousands of Russians and led to a clear break in relations with the West. In holding what has widely been viewed as faux elections, Putin wants to show that he has the nation’s full support, experts said.

    The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located. Moscow illegally annexed the regions since launching the invasion, though it remains unclear how much of the territory it controls.

    The Kremlin’s goal “is to get as many people as possible to sign off on Russia’s war against Ukraine. The idea is to get millions of Russian citizens to retroactively approve the decision Putin single-handedly made two years ago,” Maksim Trudolyubov, a senior fellow at the Kennan Institute, wrote in a note ahead of the vote.

    In remarks shortly after he was declared the winner, Putin said the election showed that the nation was “one team.”

    But Western leaders condemned the vote, with the White House National Security Council spokesperson saying they “are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.”

    British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said “this is not what free and fair elections look like,” adding in his message on X, formerly Twitter, that illegal elections have also been held on occupied Ukrainian territory.

    The French Foreign Ministry said Putin’s reelection came amid a wave of repression against civil society. It also praised in a statement the courage of “the many Russian citizens who peacefully protested against this attack on their fundamental political rights.”

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Putin has become “sick with power” and he is just “simulating” elections.

    “This imitation of ‘elections’ has no legitimacy and cannot have any. This person must end up in the dock in The Hague [at the International UN Tribunal for War Crimes],” Zelenskiy said on X.

    Putin’s allies were quick to heap praise on the Russian leader for his election success.

    China, one of Russia’s most importants allies, congratulated Putin, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian saying President Xi Jinping and the Russian leader “will continue to maintain close exchanges, lead the two countries to continue to uphold long-standing good-neighborly friendship, deepen comprehensive strategic coordination.”

    Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called Putin’s victory “decisive,” the state news agency IRNA reported.

    WATCH: Leading psychiatrists discuss how excessive power can impact brain functioning and what the impulse for total control reveals about the mind and personality traits of authority figures.

    Putin was opposed by three relatively unknown, Kremlin-friendly politicians whose campaign was barely noticeable. The main intrigue was whether Russians would heed opposition calls to gather at polling stations at noon on March 17 to silently protest against Putin’s rule.

    Russian media had reported in the months leading up to the election that the Kremlin was determined to engineer a victory for Putin that would surpass the 2018 results, when he won 77.5 percent of the vote with a turnout of 67.5 percent.

    The Kremlin banned anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin from the ballot after tens of thousands of voters lined up in the cold to support his candidacy. Nadezhdin threatened to undermine the narrative of overwhelming support for Putin and his war, experts said.

    Independent election observers were barred from working at this year’s presidential election for the first time in post-Soviet history, experts said. Russian elections have been notorious for ballot stuffing and other irregularities.

    The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located.

    The United States called the elections neither fair nor free.

    ‘Noon Against Putin’

    With options to express resistance severely limited by the lack of competition and repressive laws, opposition leaders called on voters opposed to Putin to gather near polls at noon to show the Kremlin and the country that they were still a force.

    Russia’s opposition movement suffered a serious blow last month when Aleksei Navalny, Putin’s fiercest and most popular critic, died in unclear circumstances in a maximum-security prison in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism widely seen as politically motivated.

    Long lines formed at polling stations across Russia’s 11 time zones at the designated time for the “Noon Against Putin” protest, including in Novosibirsk, Chita, Yekaterinburg, Perm, and Moscow among other Russian cities.

    “We’re not really expecting anything, but I’d somehow like to make a record of this election for myself, tick the box for myself, so, when talking about it later, I could say that I didn’t just sit at home, but came and tried to do something,” said one Russian who came to vote at noon.

    “The action has achieved its goals,” Ivan Zhdanov, the head the Anti-Corruption Foundation formerly headed by Navalny, said in a YouTube video. “The action has shown that there is another Russia, there are people who stand against Putin.”

    The Moscow prosecutor’s office had earlier warned of criminal prosecution against those who interfered with the vote, a step it said was necessary due to social-media posts “containing calls for an unlimited number of people to simultaneously arrive to participate in uncoordinated mass public events at polling stations in Moscow [at noon on March 17] in order to violate electoral legislation.”

    Lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina, who has left the country, told Current Time that if people do not bring posters and do not announce why they came to the polling station at that hour, it would be hard for the authorities to legitimately declare it a “violation.”

    But she warned that there were “some basic safety rules that you can follow if you’re worried. The first is not to discuss why you came, just to vote. And secondly, it is better to come without any visual means of agitation: without posters, flags, and so on.”

    Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission (TsIK), on March 16 said there had been 20 cases of people attempting to destroy voting sheets by pouring liquids into ballot boxes and eight incidents of people trying to destroy ballots by setting them on fire or by using smoke bombs.

    Russians living abroad also took part in the “Noon Against Putin” campaign, with hundreds of people lining up at 12 p.m. outside the Russian embassies in Sidney, Tokyo, Phuket, Dubai, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, and Yerevan among other capitals.

    “It’s not an election. It’s just a fake. And so we’re here to show that not Russians elect the current leader of Russia, that we [are] against him very severely, and that lots of people had to flee their country to be free,” said Anna, a Russian citizen living in Berlin and who gathered outside the embassy in the German capital.

    Putin was challenged by Liberal Democratic Party leader Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy speaker Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, none of whom opposed the war.

    The Russian leader had the full resources of the state behind him, including the media, police, state-owned companies, and election officials.


    This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldova Dismisses Separatists’ Drone Strike Claim As Provocation

    Vladimir Putin has claimed a fifth presidential term with a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election that has been condemned by the West as neither free nor fair as the Russian leader seeks to prove overwhelming popular support for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and increasingly repressive policies.

    With 99.75 percent of ballots counted, Putin won another six-year term with a post-Soviet record of 87.29 percent of the vote, the Central Elections Committee (TsIK) said on March 18, adding that turnout was also at a “record” level, with 77.44 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.

    The 71-year old Putin — who has ruled as either president or prime minister since 2000 — is now set to surpass Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s nearly 30-year reign to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than two centuries.

    “This election has been based on repression and intimidation,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists in Brussels on March 18 as the bloc’s foreign ministers gathered to discuss the election, among other issues.

    The March 15-17 vote is the first for Putin since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that has killed tens of thousands of Russians and led to a clear break in relations with the West. In holding what has widely been viewed as faux elections, Putin wants to show that he has the nation’s full support, experts said.

    The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located. Moscow illegally annexed the regions since launching the invasion, though it remains unclear how much of the territory it controls.

    The Kremlin’s goal “is to get as many people as possible to sign off on Russia’s war against Ukraine. The idea is to get millions of Russian citizens to retroactively approve the decision Putin single-handedly made two years ago,” Maksim Trudolyubov, a senior fellow at the Kennan Institute, wrote in a note ahead of the vote.

    In remarks shortly after he was declared the winner, Putin said the election showed that the nation was “one team.”

    But Western leaders condemned the vote, with the White House National Security Council spokesperson saying they “are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.”

    British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said “this is not what free and fair elections look like,” adding in his message on X, formerly Twitter, that illegal elections have also been held on occupied Ukrainian territory.

    The French Foreign Ministry said Putin’s reelection came amid a wave of repression against civil society. It also praised in a statement the courage of “the many Russian citizens who peacefully protested against this attack on their fundamental political rights.”

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Putin has become “sick with power” and he is just “simulating” elections.

    “This imitation of ‘elections’ has no legitimacy and cannot have any. This person must end up in the dock in The Hague [at the International UN Tribunal for War Crimes],” Zelenskiy said on X.

    Putin’s allies were quick to heap praise on the Russian leader for his election success.

    China, one of Russia’s most importants allies, congratulated Putin, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian saying President Xi Jinping and the Russian leader “will continue to maintain close exchanges, lead the two countries to continue to uphold long-standing good-neighborly friendship, deepen comprehensive strategic coordination.”

    Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called Putin’s victory “decisive,” the state news agency IRNA reported.

    WATCH: Leading psychiatrists discuss how excessive power can impact brain functioning and what the impulse for total control reveals about the mind and personality traits of authority figures.

    Putin was opposed by three relatively unknown, Kremlin-friendly politicians whose campaign was barely noticeable. The main intrigue was whether Russians would heed opposition calls to gather at polling stations at noon on March 17 to silently protest against Putin’s rule.

    Russian media had reported in the months leading up to the election that the Kremlin was determined to engineer a victory for Putin that would surpass the 2018 results, when he won 77.5 percent of the vote with a turnout of 67.5 percent.

    The Kremlin banned anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin from the ballot after tens of thousands of voters lined up in the cold to support his candidacy. Nadezhdin threatened to undermine the narrative of overwhelming support for Putin and his war, experts said.

    Independent election observers were barred from working at this year’s presidential election for the first time in post-Soviet history, experts said. Russian elections have been notorious for ballot stuffing and other irregularities.

    The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located.

    The United States called the elections neither fair nor free.

    ‘Noon Against Putin’

    With options to express resistance severely limited by the lack of competition and repressive laws, opposition leaders called on voters opposed to Putin to gather near polls at noon to show the Kremlin and the country that they were still a force.

    Russia’s opposition movement suffered a serious blow last month when Aleksei Navalny, Putin’s fiercest and most popular critic, died in unclear circumstances in a maximum-security prison in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism widely seen as politically motivated.

    Long lines formed at polling stations across Russia’s 11 time zones at the designated time for the “Noon Against Putin” protest, including in Novosibirsk, Chita, Yekaterinburg, Perm, and Moscow among other Russian cities.

    “We’re not really expecting anything, but I’d somehow like to make a record of this election for myself, tick the box for myself, so, when talking about it later, I could say that I didn’t just sit at home, but came and tried to do something,” said one Russian who came to vote at noon.

    “The action has achieved its goals,” Ivan Zhdanov, the head the Anti-Corruption Foundation formerly headed by Navalny, said in a YouTube video. “The action has shown that there is another Russia, there are people who stand against Putin.”

    The Moscow prosecutor’s office had earlier warned of criminal prosecution against those who interfered with the vote, a step it said was necessary due to social-media posts “containing calls for an unlimited number of people to simultaneously arrive to participate in uncoordinated mass public events at polling stations in Moscow [at noon on March 17] in order to violate electoral legislation.”

    Lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina, who has left the country, told Current Time that if people do not bring posters and do not announce why they came to the polling station at that hour, it would be hard for the authorities to legitimately declare it a “violation.”

    But she warned that there were “some basic safety rules that you can follow if you’re worried. The first is not to discuss why you came, just to vote. And secondly, it is better to come without any visual means of agitation: without posters, flags, and so on.”

    Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission (TsIK), on March 16 said there had been 20 cases of people attempting to destroy voting sheets by pouring liquids into ballot boxes and eight incidents of people trying to destroy ballots by setting them on fire or by using smoke bombs.

    Russians living abroad also took part in the “Noon Against Putin” campaign, with hundreds of people lining up at 12 p.m. outside the Russian embassies in Sidney, Tokyo, Phuket, Dubai, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, and Yerevan among other capitals.

    “It’s not an election. It’s just a fake. And so we’re here to show that not Russians elect the current leader of Russia, that we [are] against him very severely, and that lots of people had to flee their country to be free,” said Anna, a Russian citizen living in Berlin and who gathered outside the embassy in the German capital.

    Putin was challenged by Liberal Democratic Party leader Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy speaker Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, none of whom opposed the war.

    The Russian leader had the full resources of the state behind him, including the media, police, state-owned companies, and election officials.


    This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Man Throws Molotov Cocktail At Russian Embassy In Moldova During Election


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Apparent Fire-Bombing Disrupts Voting At Russian Consulate In Chisinau

    Long lines formed at polling stations across Russia’s 11 time zones in time for the “Noon Against Putin” protest against a presidential election expected to virtually gift Vladimir Putin another six years of rule, making him the country’s longest-serving leader.

    Voting on March 17, the last day of the election held over a span of three days, took place with virtually no opposition to the long-serving incumbent.

    Russians not in favor of seeing Putin serve yet another term settled on showing up at polling places simultaneously at midday in large numbers, with some taking steps to spoil their ballots.

    Dozens of detentions were reported around the country as the vote took place under tight security, with Russia claiming that Ukraine, which it accused of launching a wave of air attacks that reached as far as Moscow, was attempting to disrupt voting.

    Putin’s greatest political rival, Aleksei Navalny, died a month before the polls in an Arctic prison amid suspicious circumstances while serving sentences widely seen as politically motivated.

    Other serious opponents to Putin are either in jail or exile or were barred from running against him amid a heightened crackdown on dissent and the independent media.

    The situation left only three token rivals from Kremlin-friendly parties on the ballot — Liberal Democratic Party leader Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy speaker Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party.

    Despite Navalny’s death, his support for the idea of using the “Noon Against Putin” action to show the strength of the opposition lived on. The protest, a workaround of Russia’s restrictive laws on public assembly, called on people to assemble at polling stations precisely at noon.

    While it was difficult to determine voters’ reasoning for showing up to vote, many appeared to be answering the call to protest across the country as the deadline moved from Russia’s Far East toward Moscow, and from then to the western area of the country and parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia.

    Videos and images posted on social media showed long lines of voters formed at noon in Novosibirsk, Chita, Yekaterinburg, Perm, and Moscow among other Russian cities.

    “The action has achieved its goals,” said Ivan Zhdanov, the head the Anti-Corruption Foundation formerly headed by Navalny, on YouTube. “The action has shown that there is another Russia, there are people who stand against Putin.”

    The protests were accompanied by a heavy police presence and the threat of long prison terms for those seen as disrupting the voting process.

    The OVD-Info group, which monitors political arrests in Russia, said that more than 65 people were arrested in 14 cities across the country on March 17.

    Twenty people in Kazan, in the Tatarstan region, were detained and later released, according to Current Time. One Ufa resident was reportedly detained for trying to stuff a photograph of Navalny into a ballot box. And in Moscow, a voter was detained after he appeared at a polling station wearing a T-shirt bearing Navalny’s name.

    In St. Petersburg, a woman was reportedly arrested after she threw a firebomb at a polling station entrance, others were detained elsewhere in the country for spoiling ballots with green antiseptic into ballot boxes.

    Some activists were reportedly summoned to visit Federal Security Service branches precisely at 12 p.m., the same time the protest was expected.

    Outside Russia, Russian citizens also reportedly took part in the “Noon Against Putin” campaign, including in Tokyo, Istanbul, and Phuket. In Moldova, voting at the Russian Consulate in Chisinau was reportedly delayed after an apparent fire-bombing.

    The Moscow prosecutor’s office earlier warned of criminal prosecution of those who interfered with the vote, a step it said was necessary due to social-media posts “containing calls for an unlimited number of people to simultaneously arrive to participate in uncoordinated mass public events at polling stations in Moscow [at noon on March 17] in order to violate electoral legislation.”

    Lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina, who has left the country, told Current Time that if people do not bring posters and do not announce why they came to the polling station at that hour, it would be hard for the authorities to legitimately declare it a “violation.”

    But she warned that there are “some basic safety rules that you can follow if you’re worried. The first is not to discuss why you came, just to vote. And secondly, it is better to come without any visual means of agitation: without posters, flags, and so on.”

    The OVD-Info human rights group issued a statement labeled “How to Protect Yourself” ahead of the planned protest, also saying not to bring posters or banners and “do not demonstrate symbols that can attract the attention of the police, do not shout slogans. If you are asked why you came at noon, do not give the real reason.”

    Russian election officials, officially, said that as of late afternoon on March 17 more than 70 percent of the country’s 114 million eligible voters had cast ballots either in person or online.

    Observers widely predict that there was virtually no chance that Putin would not gain another term in office. A victory would hand him his fifth presidential term over a span of 24 years, interrupted only by his time spent as prime minister from 2008-2012.

    Over the first two days, some Russians expressed their anger over Putin’s authoritarian rule by vandalizing ballot boxes with a green antiseptic dye known as “zelyonka” and other liquids, with Russian officials and independent media reporting at least 28 cases.

    Incidents were reported in at least nine cities, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, and Volgograd.

    Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission (TsIK), on March 16 said there had been 20 cases of people attempting to destroy voting sheets by pouring liquids into ballot boxes and eight incidents of people trying to destroy ballots by setting them on fire or by using smoke bombs.

    On March 16, independent media reported that Russian police had opened at least 28 criminal probes into incidents of vandalism in polling stations, a number expected to grow.

    Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of the Security Council, on March 16 denounced election protesters as “villains” and “traitors” who are aiding the country’s enemies, particularly Ukraine.

    “This is direct assistance to those degenerates who are shelling our cities today,” he said on Telegram. “Criminal activists at polling stations should be aware that they can rattle for 20 years in a special regime [prison],” he added.

    Many observers say Putin warded off even the faintest of challengers to ensure a large margin of victory that he can point to as evidence that Russians back the full-scale war Moscow launched against Ukraine in February 2022.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine stepped up attacks on Russia leading up to the election, including strikes deep inside the country.

    On March 17, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported downing 35 Ukrainian drones overnight, including four in the Moscow region. Other drones were reportedly downed in the Kaluga and Yaroslavl regions neighboring the Moscow region, and in the Belgorod, Kursk, and Rostov regions along Russia’s southwestern border with Ukraine.

    On March 16, Ukrainian forces shelled the border city of Belgorod and the village of Glotovo, killing at least three people and wounding eight others, Russian officials said.

    The same day, a Ukrainian drone strike caused a fire at an oil refinery that belongs to Russian oil giant Rosneft in the Samara region, some 850 kilometers southeast of Moscow, regional Governor Dmitry Azarov said. An attack on another refinery was thwarted, he added.

    Ukraine generally does not comment on attacks inside Russia, but Reuters quoted an unidentified Ukrainian source as saying that Kyiv’s SBU intelligence agency was behind strikes at three Samara region Rosneft refineries — Syzran, Novokuibyshevsky, and Kuibyshevsky, which is inside the Samara city limits.

    “The SBU continues to implement its strategy to undermine the economic potential of the Russian Federation that allows it to wage war in Ukraine,” the news agency quoted the source as saying.

    Russian authorities, who have accused Kyiv of launching assaults designed to disrupt voting, claimed that Ukraine on March 16 dropped a missile on a voting station in a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region, although the report could not be verified.

    With reporting by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Reuters, and AP


    This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Career Corruption Prosecutor in Moldova and in EU Quits Moldovan Gov’t., Saying It’s Too Corrupt

    The Moldovan Stanislav Pavlovschi, a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, whom the current Government of Moldova then appointed as Minister of Justice, quit that post two weeks later and joined the newly formed Dignity and Truth Platform Party. At the time of his resignation from the Justice Ministry in 2019, he said, “I identified several personal incompatibilities, which, unfortunately, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova make my activity impossible as a Member of the Government. … I remain committed to the democratic and pro-European values, promoted by the Dignity and Truth Platform, and I will continue to promote them in the position of the deputy chairman of the Political Party Dignity and Truth Platform.” Of course, that was in 2019.

    Now, in a news-report by Kit Klarenberg at The Gray Zone, Mr. Pavlovschi is quoted as saying: “Moldova now is governed by the US Ambassador. … He is practically governing Moldova at this particular stage. You have hundreds of consultants for the EU … working for each and every ministry here in Moldova. So it is under very, very strict control on the part of the EU.”

    There is extensive history behind this. And it explains why the U.S. Government sub-contracts to the EU the political control over Moldova. (Ukraine had been treated the same way.) Richard J. Aldrich’s 2003 The Hidden Hand says, on page 366, about the CIA’s American Committee for a United Europe:

    ACUE, more than any other American front organization of the Cold War, was a direct creature of the leading lights of the CIA. Indeed, it was so replete with famous CIA figures that its ‘front’ was very thin. Its early years seemed to have formed something of a laboratory for figures such as [Bill] Donovan, [Allen] Dulles, [Walter] Bedell Smith and [Tom] Braden, before they moved on to other projects in the mid-1950s. Over its first three years of operations, 1949-51, ACUE received $384,650, the majority being dispersed to Europe. This was a large sum, but from 1952 ACUE began to spend such sums annually. The total budget for the period 1949-60 amounted to approximately $4 million. As the quantity of money flowing across the Atlantic began to increase, ACUE opened a local Paris office to monitor more closely groups that had received grants. By 1956, the flood of increased funding was prompting fears among the Directors of ACUE that its work would be publicly exposed. …

    The emerging European Economic Community (EEC) and the growing Western intelligence community overlapped to a considerable degree. This is underlined by the creation of the Bilderberg Group, an informal and secretive transatlantic council of key decision-makers [representatives of the billionaires who controlled U.S. and U.S.-allied international corporations]. Bilderberg was founded by Joseph Retinger and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in 1952 in response to the rise of anti-Americanism in Europe. … Retinger secured support from Averell Harriman, David Rockefeller and Walter Bedell Smith. The formation of the American wing of Bilderberg was entrusted to Eisenhower’s psychological warfare chief, C.D. Jackson, and the funding for the first meeting, held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Holland in 1954, was provided by the CIA.

    Funds for these CIA operations came not only from the U.S. Treasury but from private sources, America’s super-rich, and, also from organized gangsters, as was revealed in the 1998 classic by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. This off-the-books funding comes from narcotics kingpins throughout the world, as protection-money, which is essential to keep them in business. So, the EU was financially fueled from all of these sources, and, basically, was a bribing-operation (to end up getting the ‘right’ people into the EU’s Parliament, etc.), in addition to be receiving funds from what might be considered idealistic philanthropic donors (because the dream of a united Europe had long preceded the grubby version of it that the CIA created for Europeans).

    The EU was a Cold War operation, from its very start. It remains that to the present day.

    Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of UK’s Telegraph newspaper issued two important articles about this, the first being his 19 September 2000 “Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs”:

    DECLASSIFIED American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement. … One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen William J Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA.

    The documents were found by Joshua Paul, a researcher at Georgetown University in Washington. They include files released by the US National Archives. Washington’s main tool for shaping the European agenda was the American Committee for a United Europe, created in 1948. The chairman was Donovan, ostensibly a private lawyer by then.

    The vice-chairman was Allen Dulles, the CIA director in the Fifties. The board included Walter Bedell Smith, the CIA’s first director, and a roster of ex-OSS figures and officials who moved in and out of the CIA. The documents show that ACUE financed the European Movement, the most important federalist organisation in the post-war years. In 1958, for example, it provided 53.5 per cent of the movement’s funds.

    The European Youth Campaign, an arm of the European Movement, was wholly funded and controlled by Washington. The Belgian director, Baron Boel, received monthly payments into a special account. When the head of the European Movement, Polish-born Joseph Retinger, bridled at this degree of American control and tried to raise money in Europe, he was quickly reprimanded.

    The leaders of the European Movement — Retinger, the visionary Robert Schuman and the former Belgian prime minister Paul-Henri Spaak — were all treated as hired hands by their American sponsors. The US role was handled as a covert operation. ACUE’s funding came from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations as well as business groups with close ties to the US government.

    Then, on 27 April 2016, he bannered “The European Union always was a CIA project, as Brexiteers discover” and reported:

    It was Washington that drove European integration in the late 1940s, and funded it covertly under the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. … The US has relied on the EU ever since as the anchor to American regional interests alongside NATO. … It is odd that this magisterial 1000-page study found only a French-language publisher. [Roussel’s Jean Monnet. The French Wikipedia’s article on Roussel says “En 1995, il écrit une biographie consacrée à Jean Monnet2 qui reçoit le prix de l’Essai de l’Académie française, le prix Guizot, et le prix européen de l’histoire.” Despite all of those awards, the work is little-known, even in France.] Nor are many aware of declassified documents from the State Department archives showing that US intelligence funded the European movement secretly for decades, and worked aggressively behind the scenes to push Britain into the project. …

    [The CIA] treated some of the EU’s ‘founding fathers’ as hired hands, and actively prevented them finding alternative funding that would have broken reliance on Washington. … The American ‘deep state’ was in up to its neck. …

    Since that newspaper (like all major news-media in the U.S. and in its vassal-nations are) is both neoliberal and neoconservative, the neoconservative Pritchard approved of all this. He did it by saying: “There is nothing particularly wicked about this. The US acted astutely in the context of the Cold War. The political reconstruction of Europe was a roaring success.” However, obviously, no authentic democracy can exist in a nation that’s governed by means of deceiving its public; nor can any democracy be an empire, either the imperialistic nation itself, or one of its vassal-nations, because that’s merely “Deep State” rule, behind the scenes, by its billionaires — an aristocracy, and not a democracy, which reigns there. Though all of the country’s major news-media will support the aristocracy — since they’ll all be owned by the aristocracy — anyone who calls it a ‘democracy’ is transparently a fool or a liar, because it’s an aristocracy, which is the opposite. In fact, the CIA built today’s Europe on the basis of hiring ‘ex’-Nazis and ‘ex’-Fascists there.

    Nowadays, some of America’s billionaires are bypassing the taxpayer-funded CIA, State Department, etc., in order to control European nations — and even the EU itself — directly, by hiring consultants to rate and evaluate each of the members of the European Parliament, in order to determine which ones need to be replaced and which ones need to receive increased campaign-funding. For example, one of these reports for George Soros, that leaked online, was the 119-page study, “Reliable allies in the European Parliament (2014 – 2019)”, which described and listed each one of them. And, too, there was the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, who on 27 January 2014, received by phone the instructions from Obama’s planner of the coup in Ukraine, Victoria Nuland, on how to complete the coup and make it “stick”, and whom to place at the head of Ukraine’s government when it would be completed (“Yats” or “Yatsenyuk”) which did become successfully completed exactly a month later.

    Unlike in former eras, when the billionaires were the large land-owners and got from the Monarch formal titles of Nobility and were quite open about the supremacist character of their Government, and the public were called “subjects” instead of “citizens,” the terminology has changed, though the reality has not. Nowadays they don’t even publicly declare their international dictatorship to be an “Empire,” and rule itself is entirely behind-the scenes by the billionaires by means of their millions of hired agents whose performance is being constantly monitored by or on behalf of their patrons, the groups of billionaires that are funding their careers. And so the aristocracy continues, but the terminology has changed in order to fool the public that they live in a “democracy.”

    So: what Pavlovschi now is saying is that the corruption comes from the U.S. Government, by way of the EU.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Dangers And Conflict Resolution Efforts In Moldova

    Transnistria is de facto independent with many state-like attibutes and calls itself officially the Moldovian Republic of Dniestr.  However, no other state, including the Russian Federation has recognized it as an independent state.  There are, however, some 1500 Russian military permanently present in Transnistria.  Transnistria had some 706, 000 inhabitants in 1991 at the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union.  Today, there are some 450,000 – probably less.  Many, especially young people, have left to study or work abroad.  Many in Transnistria have Russian passports in order to travel.  The Transnistrian economy is in the hands of a small number of persons closely linked to the government.

    The post Dangers And Conflict Resolution Efforts In Moldova appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The Steepest Declines In Democracy

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldovan President Calls Snap Parliamentary Elections

    President Maia Sandu has dissolved the Moldovan parliament and called snap elections for July 11, shortly after the Constitutional Court canceled a state of emergency that lawmakers had approved.

    “The Constitutional Court has opened the way for Moldovan citizens to elect a new parliament,” Sandu told a televised briefing.

    The state of emergency, which was declared last month to help fight a surge in COVID-19 infections, had prevented Sandu from calling an election.

    Sandu, who came to office in November on a pro-European Union ticket, has accused the pro-Moscow, Socialist-dominated parliament of sabotaging her reform agenda and repeatedly pushed for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

    Moldova, with a population of about 3.5 million, is one of Europe’s poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate links with the European Union and, especially, neighboring EU member Romania.

    Most of Moldova was part of Romania until World War II, when it was annexed by the Soviet Union, and a majority of its population is ethnic Romanian.

    With reporting by Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • U.S. Calls Moldovan Parliament’s Vote To Remove Judge ‘Blatant Attack’ On Democratic Norms

    The U.S. State Department has said a vote by the Moldovan parliament to dismiss the head of the Constitutional Court was a “blatant attack on Moldova’s democratic norms and its constitutional order.”

    The State Department said in a statement that parliament’s targeting of the Constitutional Court, “which only recently asserted its independence after years of state capture,” was of particular concern.

    It also said parliament’s vote on April 23 was an attempt to replace Constitutional Court President Domnica Manole with a candidate of its own choosing.

    The vote came after the court backed a call by President Maia Sandu to dissolve parliament, paving the way for early elections.

    It appears likely to complicate a standoff between Sandu and a parliament still dominated by lawmakers aligned with her pro-Russian predecessor.

    Sandu, who came to office in November on a pro-European Union ticket, has accused the Socialist-dominated parliament of sabotaging her reform agenda and repeatedly pushed for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

    “We urge Moldova’s leaders and representatives to respect the rule of law, safeguard its democratic institutions, and work together to resolve the challenges facing the country, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement said.

    The EU earlier said the vote was an attack on Moldova’s constitutional order.

    The nonbinding vote to remove Manole must be agreed by the court itself.

    Based on reporting by Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldova’s Top Court Rules Pro-Western President Can Dissolve Parliament

    CHISINAU — Moldova’s Constitutional Court has ruled that President Maia Sandu can dissolve parliament, paving the way for early elections.

    The opinion is final and cannot be appealed, court President Domnica Manole said on April 15.

    Sandu has accused the pro-Moscow, Socialist-dominated parliament of sabotaging her reform agenda and repeatedly pushed for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

    In late March, Sandu appealed to the Constitutional Court for its opinion to dissolve parliament and call early parliamentary elections after the Socialist majority in chamber failed to approve two prime minister candidates nominated by the pro-Western president.

    Under the constitution, the president has the right to ask for the dissolution of the legislature and organize snap elections after a second failure to approve a new prime minister within 45 days, or if the formation of a new government is blocked for three months.

    Socialist Party head and former President Igor Dodon has said his party would use “all legal means” to prevent general elections from being held during the coronavirus pandemic.

    A U.S.-educated former adviser with the World Bank, Sandu defeated Dodon in November 2020 on a pledge to fight entrenched corruption and improve relations with the European Union.

    Moldova, with a population of about 3.5 million, is one of Europe’s poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate stronger links to Brussels and neighboring EU member Romania.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldovan President Says Vaccines Diverted To Officials’ Relatives, Authorities Investigate

    Moldovan President Maia Sandu has said that almost 700 doses of COVID-19 vaccines intended for health-care workers and the critically vulnerable have instead been diverted to public officials and family members, including employees of the Defense Ministry and regional authorities,

    “A first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech has been given to 688 people in the ‘relatives’ category,” Sandu told Moldova’s Jurnal TV on March 31.

    Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, has lagged behind the rest of the continent in the vaccination campaign and welcomed donations from friendly governments.

    The first batch of 14,400 doses of Pfizer vaccines from the global COVAX scheme arrived in Moldova last month. So far, the country of 4.5 million has received 110,970 doses of various vaccines.

    Sandu said Health Ministry data showed that doses went to hundreds of ineligible people from the Defense Ministry, regional officials’ relatives, and even doctors’ families.

    “This is shameful and it discourages our efforts to obtain more vaccine donations from abroad,” Sandu said.

    Moldovan President Maia Sandu (file photo0


    Moldovan President Maia Sandu (file photo0

    The Defense Ministry in a statement on April 1 rejected the accusation, calling it an “erroneous data interpretation,” and arguing that the people inoculated under the “other personnel” category in the Health Ministry records are actually health workers from military units.

    Moldova’s Health Ministry said on April 1 that it would check information that regional authorities and their relatives were jumping the queue.

    Ninel Revenco, an official at the national vaccination campaign, said the health ministry had established a commission to investigate possible violations.

    “The Health Ministry launched an investigation to determine if there were irregularities in the vaccination process. For this, the lists of all vaccinated will be checked,” Revenco told a news conference, without providing details of violations.

    Local media reported that out-of-order vaccinations occurred in the northern town of Edinet and in Cantemir in the southern part of Moldova.

    Moldova started vaccinations on March 2 and so far around 40,000 medical workers and doctors have received a first shot.

    The country sandwiched between EU member Romania and Ukraine has reported 230,241 coronavirus cases and 4,960 deaths so far.

    With reporting by Reuters, RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service, unimedia.md, and news.yam.md

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary Among States With Highest Number Of ECHR Cases

    The Council of Europe says states across the continent last year continued to make “progress” on implementing judgments from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) despite the coronavirus pandemic.

    But it stressed that further efforts are needed to tackle issues such as ill-treatment or deaths caused by security forces and poor conditions of detention, as well as a “growing number of cases concerning abusive limitations on rights and freedoms.”

    The assessment was part of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ annual report for 2020 on the execution of ECHR judgments.

    States with the highest total number of new cases last year were Russia (218), Turkey (103), and Ukraine (84), followed by Romania (78) and Hungary (61).

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    These countries also had the highest number of pending cases at the end of 2020: Russia (1,789), Turkey (624), Ukraine (567), Romania (347), and Hungary (276).

    The states over which the ECHR awarded the most “just satisfaction” to applicants were Romania ($43.9 million), Russia ($13.4 million), Italy ($6 million), Montenegro ($5.4 million), and Moldova ($4.9 million).

    Council of Europe Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic Buric said in a statement that the report shows that member states take their obligations to implement judgments from the Strasbourg-based court “very seriously, even in difficult circumstances.”

    However, Buric noted that “many important judgments have been outstanding for several years and a small number of high-profile cases are not being resolved quickly enough.”

    “Our member states have a duty to implement ECHR judgments promptly and fully. This is not a kind request — it is a binding requirement,” she insisted.

    According to the report, 983 cases were closed by the Committee of Ministers in 2020, which marked the 70th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, as a result of steps taken by the relevant member states.

    At the end of the year, 5,233 cases had yet to be fully implemented by the member states involved — among the lowest counts since 2006.

    The report states that 581 payments of “just satisfaction” to applicants, awarded by the ECHR, were made on time in 2020, while the Committee of Ministers was still awaiting confirmation of payment in 1,574 cases at the end of December.

    Among the most significant cases that the committee was able to close in 2020 were three cases regarding abusive limitations of the rights to liberty and security in Azerbaijan, and a case concerning voting rights in local elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

    But the report cautions there is “not a time for complacency” because “serious challenges continue to be raised in the context of the execution of many cases.”

    It cited an interstate case opposing Georgia and Russia, a “larger number” of individual applications linked to post-conflict situations or unresolved conflicts, and “many long-standing systemic and structural problems” concerning in particular “ineffective investigations” into ill-treatment or death caused by security forces and poor conditions of detention.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldovan President Goes To Top Court On Snap Elections Bid

    CHISINAU — Moldovan President Maia Sandu says she has appealed to the Constitutional Court for its opinion regarding her intention to dissolve parliament and call early parliamentary elections.

    “I, like experts on constitutional law, believe that the legal circumstances for the dissolution of parliament have been met,” Sandu told reporters on March 30, five days after the Socialist-dominated parliament failed for a second time to approve the candidate nominated by the pro-Western president to serve as prime minister.

    Lawmakers on February 11 rejected Sandu’s first choice for the post, former Finance Minister Natalia Gavrilita.

    Under the constitution, the president has the right to ask for the dissolution of the legislature and organize snap elections after a second failure to approve a new prime minister within 45 days, or if the formation of a new government is blocked for three months.

    In her press conference, Sandu reiterated her criticism of the current parliament, saying it includes corrupt deputies who “impoverish the country.”

    The president has refused to nominate two candidates for prime minister proposed by the parliamentary majority led by the Moscow-leaning Socialist Party.

    After Sandu’s announcement, the Socialist Party head and former Moldovan President Igor Dodon said his party would use “all legal means” to prevent general elections from being held during the coronavirus pandemic.

    A U.S.-educated former adviser with the World Bank, Sandu defeated Dodon in November 2020 on a pledge to fight entrenched corruption and improve relations with the European Union.

    She has repeatedly said she wants to push for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

    Moldova, with a population of about 3.5 million, is one of Europe’s poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate stronger links to Brussels and neighboring EU member Romania.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldova Becomes First European Country To Receive COVID-19 Vaccines Under COVAX Scheme

    Moldovan President Maia Sandu says her country has received a shipment of COVID-19 vaccines under the global COVAX scheme for poorer countries, a first for Europe.

    “#Moldova is the first European nation to receive #COVID19vaccines via the #COVAX initiative — the first 14,400 doses arrived last night,” Sandu tweeted on March 5.

    The pro-Western president thanked Germany and other EU member states, as well as the United States, Britain, Canada, Japan, and the European Commission for showing “solidarity.”

    In a statement on March 4, the World Health Organization said the country had secured enough doses of vaccines through COVAX to cover about 1.7 million people, roughly half of its population.

    Moldova has struggled in the global scramble to gain access to vaccines and welcomed donations.

    Last week, Romania donated 21,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Moldova, enabling one of Europe’s poorest countries to begin its vaccination campaign.

    Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in December pledged Moldova 200,000 vaccine doses from its quota allotted by the European Union.

    Moldova has registered more than 191,000 coronavirus infections and over 4,000 fatalities.

    With reporting by RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldovan President Says Country Should Seize Moment Of ‘Unprecedented’ EU Support

    CHISINAU — The European Union regards Moldova’s new leadership with sympathy and has shown its readiness to help it fight corruption and reform its judiciary, President Maia Sandu has told RFE/RL, adding that the East European state needs to take advantage of this opportunity.

    A U.S.-educated former adviser with the World Bank, Sandu defeated Moscow-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in November 2020 on a pledge to fight entrenched corruption and improve relations with the European Union.

    “I’ve seen very much support and a lot of openness, unprecedented openness toward Moldova…which gives us enormous opportunities,” Sandu said on March 3.

    “We must seize this moment, because the people expect responsible decisions and actions mainly in the fight against corruption and judiciary reform,” Sandu said.

    Moldova is one of Europe’s poorest countries and is sharply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate stronger links to Brussels and neighboring EU member Romania.

    “I would say that our country hasn’t enjoyed such openness in a very long time. We need to take advantage of this situation on all fronts, including in acquiring more vaccines [to fight the pandemic],” Sandu said.

    Standoff With Parliament

    The country has lagged behind the rest of the continent in the scramble for anti-COVID-19 vaccines and welcomed donations from friendly governments.

    The Moldovan drug regulator last month registered three vaccines — Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and the Russian-made Sputnik V — for use in Moldova.

    The government this week said it expects a first shipment of vaccines under the global COVAX scheme for poorer countries. Last week, Romania donated 21,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the country of 3.5 million that has registered almost 190,000 infections and more than 4,000 fatalities.

    Sandu, who is currently embroiled in a standoff with the parliament dominated by lawmakers allied with Dodon, has repeatedly said she wants to push for snap elections in order to acquire a working majority in the 101-seat legislature.

    Moldova’s Constitutional Court last month rejected Sandu’s second attempt to nominate a prime minister, hindering her effort to force early elections.

    Sandu had nominated Natalia Gavrilita unsuccessfully for a second time on February 11 despite parliament’s earlier rejection of Gavrilita.

    The second nomination appeared intended to clear a path for Sandu to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

    Sandu’s former party, the Party of Action and Solidarity, hopes a new vote would leave them stronger relative to Dodon’s Socialists.

    “More than 70 percent of the people want early elections. Who are these lawmakers, who acceded to parliament through fraud, to act against the will of 70 percent of the people?” Sandu said, adding that the dispute could be eventually settled through a referendum.

    “If no compromise can be reached, this conflict must be settled by the citizens in a referendum to either suspend the president or call early elections.”

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldova Receives First COVID-19 Shots From Romania

    Romania delivered the first batch of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shots to Moldova on February 27, enabling one of Europe’s poorest countries to begin its vaccination campaign.

    Moldova has struggled in the global scramble to gain access to vaccines and welcomed donations for its 3.5 million people.

    In December, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis pledged Moldova 200,000 vaccine doses from its quota allotted by the European Union during a visit to Chisinau meant to support the country’s new pro-Western president, Maia Sandu.

    It was the first visit by Romania’s president to Moldova in six years, representing a clear thaw in relations between the neighbors after years of poor ties under the Russia-backed former President Igor Dodon.

    Moldova is deeply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate links with EU member Romania, with which it shares a common culture, history, and language.

    “Romania keeps its promise…Today we deliver the first doses, 21,600 of AstraZeneca,” Romania’s Prime Minister Florin Citu wrote on his Facebook page on February 27. “It is the first batch of the 200,000 does that we offer as humanitarian aid. The rest will follow in the coming months.”

    Sandu said the first shots would go into the arms of doctors, health-care professionals, and front-line workers in the pandemic in the next few days.

    “Thank you, Romania! Thank you, European Union!” she wrote in a message on Facebook.

    The government also expects a first shipment of 14,400 AstraZeneca doses under the global COVAX scheme for poorer countries to arrive in Moldova by March 3.

    Moldova this week authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines, the two shots registered for emergency use by the World Health Organization.

    It also approved Russia’s Sputnik V after a brief political stir when Dodon accused Sandu of trying to block the vaccine’s use in Moldova.

    The presidential office denied blocking the Russian shot.

    With reporting by RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service and Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • EU, WHO Announce Vaccine Program For Six Eastern European Countries

    The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union are launching a 40 million euro ($48.5 million) regional program to help six Eastern European countries with COVID-19 vaccinations.

    The program will involve Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, the EU and UN health agency said on February 11.

    “By strengthening preparedness and readiness of the countries for vaccinations, this program will prepare the countries for the effective receipt and administering of vaccines, including those from COVAX and through vaccine-sharing mechanisms with EU member states,” the European Commission said.

    COVAX is a global initiative aimed at providing shots to poorer countries.

    The six countries are part of the Eastern Partnership that seeks to strengthen ties between the EU and several Eastern European states.

    The EU will pay for the vaccine program over a three-year period while the WHO will help implement it.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Dueling Rallies In Moldova Support, Criticize Kremlin Foe Navalny

    Dozens of Moldovans gathered on January 23 outside the Russian Embassy in Chisinau in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. At the same time, about a dozen demonstrators nearby chanted slogans against Navalny while waving the flag of Moldova’s Russia-backed breakaway Transdniester region and the black-and-orange St. George ribbons used by Kremlin supporters. Large protests against Navalny’s prosecution took place on January 23 across Russia and abroad.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Servers Seized In Ukraine, Moldova As Germany Takes Down ‘World’s Largest’ Illegal Darknet Marketplace

    German authorities have shut down “the world’s largest” illegal online marketplace as part of an international operation against the darknet.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldova’s President Names Acting Prime Minister, Repeats Call For Snap Parliamentary Elections

    Moldovan President Maia Sandu has appointed Foreign Minister Aurel Ciocoi as acting prime minister.

    Sandu announced the appointment on Facebook on December 31, following the resignation of former Prime Minister Ion Chicu last week.

    Sandu defeated pro-Russian President Igor Dodon in an election last month on a platform of combating corruption and building on her country’s Association Agreement with the European Union.

    Ciocoi, a career diplomat, previously served as Dodon’s foreign policy adviser. Under Moldova’s constitution, Sandu was obliged to choose an acting prime minister from among the outgoing cabinet.

    Sandu has asked the Constitutional Court to weigh in on a request by parliamentary deputies from the Party of Action and Solidarity — which Sandu headed before becoming president — to allow parliament to dissolve itself and hold snap elections.

    “I hope that the court will consider this request…in a few days,” Sandu said on December 31.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Romania, Moldova’s New President Vow Fresh Start After Pro-Russia Leader’s Exit

    Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu have vowed to open a fresh page in relations as Moldova’s new president plies a pro-EU and anti-corruption agenda.

    Iohannis visited Sandu in Chisinau on December 29, just days after the former World Bank economist was inaugurated following her victory in last month’s runoff election against Russia-backed President Igor Dodon.

    It was the first visit by Romania’s president to Moldova in six years, representing a clear thaw in relations between the neighbors after years of poor ties under Dodon.

    Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, is deeply divided between those who support closer ties with Russia and those who advocate links with EU member Romania, with which it shares a common culture and language.

    Iohannis stated that his visit was symbolic, meant to support the new president and her pro-West agenda at time the country is suffering from an economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

    “The victory of Maia Sandu in the presidential elections is a victory of historic importance. My visit is taking place against the backdrop of a massive vote by Moldovan citizens for European values,” Iohannis told a televised briefing.

    Beyond rhetoric, he announced an economic aid package and said Romania would provide Moldova with 200,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from its quota allotted by the EU.

    Sandu described a new beginning in the country’s foreign and domestic policy, which includes “the development of a strategic partnership with Romania.”

    “I am glad that starting today, Moldova and Romania are re-entering natural, fraternal, and open relations,” Sandu said alongside Iohannis. “A new stage is beginning in Moldova, which applies to both domestic and foreign policy. The stage of getting out of international isolation.”

    Since her election, Sandu has called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Moscow-backed separatist region of Transdniester, prompting the Kremlin to warn it could lead to “serious destabilization.”

    The rapprochement between Chisinau and Bucharest comes as Moldova lurches toward early parliamentary elections after Prime Minister Ion Chicu and his pro-Dodon government resigned on December 23 following weeks of political crisis.

    Sandu is pushing for snap legislative elections, describing them as the “only way to cleanse parliament and restore justice in our country.”

    Earlier December, protesters backing Sandu took to the streets of Chisinau to demand early elections after lawmakers passed a bill transferring control of the country’s intelligence agency from the president to parliament.

    The move was seen as a way to boost the power of parliament, where pro-Moscow Socialists aligned with Dodon hold a razor-thin one-seat majority in the 101-seat legislature.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldova’s New Pro-EU President Pledges To Be ‘Honest And Transparent’

    Maia Sandu has been sworn in as the new president of Moldova, pledging in her inauguration speech on December 24 to be an “honest and transparent” president of “all Moldovans.”

    Sandu, a Harvard-educated former World Bank economist who favors closer ties to the European Union and the United States, was elected last month after a clear runoff victory against Russia-backed Igor Dodon.

    She promised during her presidential campaign to battle endemic corruption in Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries.

    During the inauguration ceremony, Sandu, 48, cited the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s economic crisis as her priorities and promised to appoint a team of experts to tackle the issues. Sandu has presented closer integration with the EU as a way out of the economic crisis.

    “We need to get the vaccine as soon as possible,” said Sandu, referring to the COVID-19 vaccines that are already being deployed in some countries.

    She also spoke about the modernization of the health system, which she said showed its limitations during the pandemic, and pledge to pursue a pro-European foreign policy “that would support domestic policy.”

    U.S. State Department spokesman Cale Brown congratulated Sandu, the first female president of Moldova, on her “historic” inauguration on Twitter.

    “We look forward to working with you to strengthen Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, advance the rule of law, democratic reform, and greater economic prosperity,” Brown said.

    Thousands of Sandu’s supporters greeted her outside the Palace of the Republic in the capital, Chisinau, after the ceremony, chanting “Maia Sandu and the people!” and “The people love you!”

    She previously served as prime minister for several months during Dodon’s term before being ousted in a vote of no confidence last year.

    On December 23, Prime Minister Ion Chicu and his government resigned in a move to help push the country toward early elections.

    In her inauguration speech, Sandu said that snap legislative elections are the “only way to cleanse parliament and restore justice in our country.”

    Earlier this month around 20,000 protesters took to the streets in Chisinau to demand early elections after lawmakers passed a bill transferring control of the country’s intelligence agency from the president to parliament.

    The move was seen as a way to boost the power of parliament, where pro-Moscow Socialists aligned with Dodon hold a razor-thin one-seat majority in the 101-seat legislature.

    The November presidential election was seen as a referendum on two divergent visions for the future of the Eastern European country of 3.5 million people that is sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania.

    Since the election Sandu has called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova’s Moscow-backed separatist region of Transdniester, prompting the Kremlin to warn it could lead to “serious destabilization.”

    Sandu is expected to nominate a new prime minister after consulting with the outgoing parliament.

    Since the prime minister has resigned, she can dissolve parliament if there are two failed attempts to find a successor.

    With reporting by AFP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Maia Sandu Takes Oath Of Office As New Moldovan President

    Maia Sandu was sworn in as the new president of Moldova after taking the oath of office at a ceremony in the capital, Chisinau, on December 24. Sandu is a former World Bank economist who favors closer ties to the European Union and the United States. She was elected last month after a clear runoff victory against Russia-backed Igor Dodon.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • CIS Foreign Ministers Approve Draft On Closer Military, COVID-19 Cooperation

    Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have approved a draft concept on further developing cooperation in several areas, including the coronavirus pandemic.

    The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement that ministers approved a number of documents at the December 10 meeting, including a concept of military cooperation between CIS member states to 2025.

    It added that the Council of the CIS leaders will be held online on December 18.

    “The participants discussed a wide range of integration cooperation issues within the CIS, with a special emphasis on joint actions to overcome the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said after the meeting.

    CIS members are former Soviet republics — Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan has an associate status in the grouping.

    Ukraine quit the grouping in 2018, four years after Russia forcibly annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in March 2014 and started backing separatists in Ukraine’s east in a conflict that has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014.

    Ukraine was an associate member of the CIS since the grouping was established following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

    Earlier, in 2009, another former Soviet republic, Georgia, quit the CIS following a five-day Russian-Georgian war in August 2008, after which Russia has maintained troops in Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and recognized their independence from Tbilisi.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Moldovan Protesters Demand Snap Elections

    Moldovan President-elect Maia Sandu addressed a rally attended by thousands in the capital, Chisinau, on December 6. Sandu called the rally after the parliament passed a bill stripping the president of control over the country’s intelligence service. The protesters called for early parliamentary elections, a demand that Sandu has repeatedly raised.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Thousands Rally In Moldova Calling For Snap Parliamentary Vote

    CHISINAU — Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of the Moldovan capital demanding the government’s resignation and early general elections.

    The demonstrators gathered at the square in front of the parliament building in Chisinau on December 6, shouting slogans such as “We are the people!”

    The rally was called by President-elect Maia Sandu, who favors closer ties with the European Union, after lawmakers passed a bill transferring control of the country’s intelligence agency from the president to parliament.

    Several thousand people on December 3 rallied against the move, which came after Sandu defeated the Russia-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in last month’s presidential election.

    Sandu and her supporters say the goal of the legislation was to reduce the presidency before she takes office and to boost parliament, where the pro-Moscow Socialists aligned with Dodon outnumber the opposition.

    Addressing the December 6 rally, Sandu reiterated her call for the government of Prime Minister Ion Chicu to resign and for snap parliamentary polls.

    “Igor Dodon does not want to admit defeat,” she told the crowd. “He wants now to set fire to the country, provoke chaos, drive Moldova into international isolation.”

    The Constitutional Court is expected to officially confirm her election victory on December 10, and her inauguration is scheduled for two weeks later.

    With reporting by AFP

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Thousands Rally In Moldova Calling For Snap Parliamentary Vote

    CHISINAU — Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of the Moldovan capital demanding the government’s resignation and early general elections.

    The demonstrators gathered at the square in front of the parliament building in Chisinau on December 6, shouting slogans such as “We are the people!” and “To prison!”

    The rally was called by President-elect Maia Sandu, who favors closer ties with the European Union, after lawmakers passed a bill transferring control of the country’s intelligence agency from the president to parliament.

    Several thousand people on December 3 rallied against the move, which came after Sandu defeated the Russia-backed incumbent Igor Dodon in last month’s presidential election.

    Sandu and her supporters say the goal of the legislation was to reduce the presidency before she takes office and to boost parliament, where the pro-Moscow Socialists aligned with Dodon outnumber the opposition.

    Addressing the December 6 rally, Sandu reiterated her call for the government of Prime Minister Ion Chicu to resign and for snap parliamentary polls.

    “Igor Dodon does not want to admit defeat,” she told the crowd. “He wants now to set fire to the country, provoke chaos, drive Moldova into international isolation.”

    She also accused parliament of trying to sabotage her ability to fight corruption, saying: “This majority adopts laws that strip the powers of the president so that we cannot fight corruption and thieves.”

    “We will go to the end until we cleanse the country of corrupt officials,” Sandu added.

    The Constitutional Court is expected to officially confirm her election victory on December 10, and her inauguration is scheduled for two weeks later.

    Sandu promised during her presidential campaign to battle corruption in Moldova, the poorest countries in Europe.

    With reporting by AFP and Reuters

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.