Moldova Stands with Israel and Works to Support Citizens in the Conflict Zone
Weekly Roundup October 13, 2023
War in Israel
Like most of the world, Moldova has been transfixed by the sudden explosion of horrific violence in Israel and the subsequent unfolding war with Hamas. As the events unfolded President Sandu condemned the attacks against Israeli civilians saying:
“I am appalled by the ongoing attack on Israel. I condemn mass violence against innocent civilians. My thoughts are with Israel and everyone defending themselves against these ruthless attacks,”
Subsequently the Moldovan Parliament building was lit up with the Israeli flag in show of solidarity.
Officially 13,000 Moldovan citizens are registered as living in Israel, though some estimates put the real number up to 20,000. Of those registered, 7,000 work in construction, 5,000 in in-home care work. Another 100 citizens live in the Gaza strip.
The government has set up a crisis management center that is coordinating with Moldovan citizens in Israel, the Moldovan Embassy in Tel Aviv and keeping in close communications with the Israeli, Egyptian, American, Romanian and Ukrainian governments to monitor the situation.
Foreign Minister Popescu made a statement on the situation saying:
“We are aware of our large diaspora in Israel, which, together with Israeli citizens, is going through difficult times due to the war started by the Hamas movement. I want to emphasize that you are not alone, and despite the complexity of the situation, Moldova is with you through our embassy in Tel Aviv. (…) Our employees are ready to respond promptly at any time. However, so far, as the data shows, many of those who have expressed a desire to return home have already returned or are planning to do so in the coming days, using regular flights,”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that a 35 year old Moldovan citizen who was working near the Gaza border was killed in the attacks. The government expressed condolences to the family. 50 Moldovan citizens living in Gaza have requested help in evacuating. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working with international partners and trying to organize an evacuation route for them via Egypt.
The government is currently not planning any special evacuation flights but is helping citizens who want to fly home to organize commercial flights. At the time of writing Hisky, WizzAir and FlyOne flights from Tel Aviv to Chisinau or Iasi are either sold out or have steeply risen in price to around 600 euros through the weekend. Previously prices would have been between 20 euros and 100 euros. Prices seem to be falling on Monday reflecting a short term surge in bookings.
Moldova’s most prominent citizen residing in Israel, Ilan Shor, has chosen to take advantage of this moment in order to arrange a political stunt. On October 12th Mr. Shor claimed that he had arranged a repatriation flight for Moldovans in Tel Aviv to return to Chisinau but that it was blocked by the Moldovan authorities. Civil Aviation authorities responded by saying that the flight was not coordinated with them in any way, and that what was supposed to be a repatriation flight only had 13 Moldovan citizens on it out of 30 passengers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs later clarified further saying that Shor notified Moldovan authorities of the flight when it was already on the runway. They urgently approved the flight but suggested that Shor intentionally set up a complex situation to make people wait in the plane so he could score political points. The Ministry commented stating:
“It is cynical and heartless to try to extract political benefit by exploiting the tragedy of innocent people, especially when you do it using money stolen from the citizens of Moldova,”
The flight in question landed in Chisinau on October 13th. Shor claims that he will send another one on October 14th though authorities stress that they have not been officially notified. Mr. Shor claims that these flights are being arranged with “the help of sponsors.”
International Affairs and the 3rd EPC Summit
The European Political Community EPC held their 3rd summit last week in Granada Spain. President Sandu attended the summit and spoke again about the challenges of Russian aggression, the need to support Ukrainian victory and Moldova’s future in the EU. In a statement she also highlighted Moldova’s vulnerability to hybrid attacks and the need for European solidarity saying:
“Russia is still trying to attack the democratic process in Moldova and impede the process of European integration. But we have strong friends, including here today. I will call on [European] leaders to fight disinformation, fight propaganda, fight those whom Russia uses to undermine our democracies and our states. Elections will be held in Moldova in November. Other countries in the region are holding elections and are facing the same problem: Russian interference in their internal affairs. Therefore, I believe that we must make more joint efforts to protect democracies from disinformation, from illicit money coming from Russia and from any other attempts to destabilize democracies and our countries,”
Author’s Note: Much of the summit focused on the political undercurrents around EU enlargement and the internal and external challenges to this process. We don’t have time to cover this much here, but Politico Europe ran a good article on the topic that is well worth a read.
President Zelenskyy again attended the summit but notably absent were Turkish President Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Aliyev who both confirmed their attendance but did not show up. Foreign journalists were asked by the Moldovan press at the event how the venue and organization stacked up against Moldova’s hosting of the 2nd EPC summit this past spring. The consensus was that Moldova had a better venue and all spoke highly of the Moldovan organization which has apparently left an impression.
President Sandu made news in some western press outlets when speaking to the Financial Times on the sidelines of the event. In the interview she stated that Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Mercenary group were planning a coup d'état in Moldova in spring 2023. In Moldova this is not news and we wrote about it at the time.
In the interview she laid out the stark challenges facing Moldova saying:
“They tried to use the energy, but it didn’t work. They tried to overthrow the government, and they failed. And now they are trying to massively interfere in our elections using large amounts of money,”
The President noted that they have tracked or intercepted 20 million euros that have been sent to Moldova for the purposes of political subversion. That is only the amount Moldova knows about and the totals are likely much higher. Speaking of the money laundering she stated:
“The tools they used to import money were very varied. For some time we have seen Moldovan citizens being sent to Moscow on planes via Georgia. And each of these people returned and brought €10 thousand. Lately we have seen that they bring bank cards issued in Dubai. They just give out thousands of cards. Bank cards for the people they are trying to bribe,”
Building on these interviews with a local station back in Moldova the President highlighted in particular the Constitutional Court decision(s) around the Shor Party. She explained the need to ban these officials before completing each individual criminal case saying:
“We know how the courts work, and we saw that it took ten years to convict the theft of a billion. What will happen to our democracy in another ten years? Today it is under attack by criminal groups and intermediaries from Russia. You can't play chess when Russia is boxing with you. We must be decisive, defend our democracy and statehood,”
In other international affairs news, Igor Dodon was the only Moldovan politician to congratulate Putin on his birthday last week. He joined only one world leader, President Lukashenko of Belarus, in sending the congratulations.
For his part, Vladimir Putin made comments about the fate of Moldova after the war when asked at one of his long press conferences by a Moldovan MP of the Communist Party Constantin Starîș In the comments he alluded to a situation where Moldova only has a future with Russia saying:
“If the people of Moldova vote for those people who want to give up a significant part of sovereignty to other countries and trail behind these interests, then in accordance with this they will occupy a certain role - they will not be seen or heard. And if they follow the path of preserving sovereignty, national dignity, and their traditions, then, as I said in my speech, we will strive to ensure that all countries have an equal voice. I don’t know how it will all work out, but this is our position, and this is what we will strive for,”
Moldovan Security Updates
This week President Sandu presented the draft of a new National Security Strategy for Moldova to the Supreme Security Council. In it she highlighted 2 major security threats to the country: Russia and internal corruption. Presenting the plan the President stated:
"Since Russia launched an all-out war against Ukraine, Moldova is under threat of destabilization and the real risk of being next if Ukraine falls. All this time, in the Republic of Moldova there were and still are people who contribute to these attacks - they are ready to sell the peace and security of Moldovans today and bring Moldova to its knees for their own interest."...
"Today we have two great dangers to national security: the aggressive policy pursued by the Russian Federation against our country and against peace in general, and the corruption rooted in the Republic of Moldova” …
"The Kremlin's plan was to destroy Ukraine and then move on. This plan failed. The heroism of the Ukrainian nation maintains peace in Moldova. But Russia will not willingly give up its hostile actions against the Republic of Moldova. We must therefore rebuild our national defense and develop the capacity to resist hybrid actions. This effort is within our power."
This is the first time that Moldova has ever explicitly identified Russia as a threat to its national security. In the plan President Sandu outlined a strengthening of the country’s armed forces and internal security to deal with the threat. She also highlighted malign political interference and focused on justice reform as necessary to assuring the country’s democratic future.
Igor Dodon spoke out opposing the plan calling it “anti-Russian” and Ilan Shor responded with various populist statements about how this plan won’t make the price of gas cheaper, etc, etc.
Meanwhile, another Russian drone landed in Romanian territory and detonated leaving an impact crater. Luckily no one was injured. Romanian Ministry of Defense officials have concluded that the drone that crashed there last week was shot down by Ukrainian air defense after which it flew on an erratic path and unintentionally landed in Romania.
Politics and Justice Reform
Here are other important stories making the news this week:
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen visited Chisinau on October 12th and met with President Sandu. In the meetings von der Leyen announced the release of 105 million euros of previously allocated financial aid to help Moldova cope with energy needs this winter. She commended Moldova on reforms and progress towards EU membership saying:
" It is impressive to see the resilience and determination with which the Republic of Moldova is moving towards the European Union. The results are visible here ,"
North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall is on a working visit to Moldova this week. Elaine Marshall has been a key leader in the close partnership between Moldova and North Carolina since the country’s independence.
A member of the Pre-Vetting Commission, Vitaly Miron, resigned this week saying that he was "forced by circumstances." He said that in the pre-vetting process the commission has relied on information presented by candidates and received from law enforcement - which he notes they did not get in a recent case. He also noted a case where the Supreme Court of Justice overturned pre-vetting recommendations for 21 judicial candidates and forced their appointment against the commission’s recommendations. Miron called the situation a "legal absurdity" and has now publicly highlighted more cracks in the pre-vetting justice reform process. Explaining his decision to resign he said:
“Under these circumstances, the only solution that I consider appropriate in order to maintain my impartiality and integrity, to prevent violation of the law and to avoid non-compliance with decisions of the Supreme Court, is to submit my resignation,”
Sanford University’s Rule of Law School director Eric Jensen and co-authors have released a report entitled "Justice Delayed: Countering Delayed Tactics in Anti-Corruption Investigations in Moldova." The report was requested by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s office which has sought advice on dealing with a legal system where major cases take years (sometimes a decade) to even get to court. Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Veronica Dragalin explained the situation saying:
“Despite the fact that over the past year the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office has completed and transferred to court many criminal cases involving high-ranking officials, including the former president, ex-prime minister, former minister, former and current deputies, prosecutors and judges, the consideration of these cases is not proceeding at the pace we expected,”
Shor Party(s) and Corruption
As with past weeks, more an more stories continue to break about Ilan Shor and his political front parties illegal financing and attempts to interfere in local elections. This will most likely only accelerate through election day. Here’s a roundup of the key stories from the past week:
A man was arrested at the border with 550,000 euros in a suitcase. The 60 year old Romanian citizen was crossing the border in a luxury car when he was searched after stating he had nothing to declare. Border agents found the huge haul of cash and arrested him. Shor party affiliates deny that the money is related to them.
PAS MP and chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Budget Radu Marian posted a long statement detailing the efforts to interfer in the elections. In it he explicitly linked the 550,000 euros to Shor saying (in excerpt):
"The risks I'm talking about are not hypothetical. These are real things that can be seen. Everyone saw how last week law enforcement caught a man with a suitcase full of 550 thousand euros intended to bribe mayors and voters.
Three weeks ago, everyone saw the details of the investigations, during which they showed in detail how the Shor criminal group, through deputies stolen from other factions, is trying to buy up everything that moves in our politics.
The amount of money the Kremlin spends to help criminal groups gain votes and power in our country is simply unimaginable. Their modus operandi is reminiscent of Latin American drug cartels and American cocaine traffickers - they are resourceful and sitting on mountains of money,”
Marina Tauber was again removed from the election for mayor of Balti following new restrictions on former Shor Party officials.
Law enforcement announce a new illegal political financing scheme with bank cards. Anti-Corruption Prosecutors detailed how 3 people were intercepted attempting to bring 1,975 bank cards into the country which they allege were to be distributed to politicians and party groups. Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Dragalin called on anyone who received similar cards to turn them in or face charges of money laundering in addition to other bribery counts.
Arina Spataru has been assigned state security. Following her recent undercover activities, the authorities have decided to provider her security as a witness facing potential threats.
Bashkan Hutsel in Gagauzia announced a pension increase starting in October. She said that all people receiving a pension of under 3000 lei will get an extra 1000 lei / month funded by the“patron of arts and philanthropist Ilan Shor.”
Author’s Note: In order to prevent the Weekly Roundup from getting unmanageably long this week, we’re going to do an additional article early next week that focuses on the state of play in local elections and the launch of the campaign season. We’ll look at the main candidates, the stakes in the election and any recent polling. Stay tuned.