Republic of Moldova

Members of local political party branches in Moldova linked to fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor are accused of receiving funds from undeclared sources to take part in protests linked to the country’s presidential elections due in October.

Lawmakers in Moldova’s separatist region of Tiraspol passed a law on Wednesday banning the use of the term ‘Transnistria’, equating it with terms such as ‘fascism’ and ‘Nazism’, with the region’s de facto leader, Vadim Krasnoselski, saying he prefers the Russian term ‘Pridnestrovie’.

Fugitive Moldovan oligarchs Ilan Shor and Veaceslav Platon have spent around €136,000 on Facebook campaigns in the last three months to spread panic, discredit Moldova’s EU integration process and boost Russia’s image, WatchDog.MD experts have found. … In 2017, Shor was convicted of fraud for stealing $1 billion from three Moldovan banks in 2014.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Prime Minister Dorin Recean in a meeting in Chisinsau on August 21 that Berlin will remain the biggest European supporter of Ukraine. 

Moldovan officials are worried that Russia may try manipulating divisions between the capital and two dissident regions ahead of October polls. These fissures have widened as Chisinau draws closer to the West. To reduce frictions, the government should reach out anew to the regional authorities.

Russian disinformation threatens to interfere with Moldovan elections later this year just as the country begins to make significant progress on reforms under pro-Western President Maia Sandu, U.S. and Moldovan officials said at separate events in Washington on July 23.

Moldova’s Socialists, the ex-Soviet state’s largest opposition party, put forward a dismissed prosecutor general as a “unified opposition” candidate on Monday (8 July) to challenge pro-European incumbent Maia Sandu in an October presidential election.

Igor Dodon, the pro-Russian leader of Moldova's largest opposition party and a former president, won't commit to running in Moldova's upcoming presidential election as he looks to spearhead the defeat of incumbent Maia Sandu and her pro-EU agenda.

The EU today [Tuesday] held the first Intergovernmental Conference at ministerial level to open accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova.

Today the Council adopted an assistance measure under the European Peace Facility (EPF) in support of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova to modernise the country’s air defence capabilities.