Sandu's UN Address: Moldova's Fight for Democracy and a Closer EU Relationship Amid Russian Tensions
Weekly Roundup: September 25, 2023
President Sandu Speaks at the UN General Assembly
This week President Sandu attended the UN General Assembly along with Moldovan diplomats. In her speech to the body, the President stressed the importance of EU integration for Moldova, the country’s progress in reforms and the continuing hybrid threat from Russia. Here are selected excerpts from her speech:
"Enlarging the EU is the only way to ensure that our neighborhood remains anchored in the free world and that we provide a better life for our citizens. This will also demonstrate the Union's commitment to peace – the very reason the EU was built. When it comes to EU membership, we are committed to a fair and merit-based process, and we have conscientiously continued to do our homework. In this sense, I appeal to the European Commission and all EU member countries to support us",
“It is a great honor for me to once again stand before you at the UN General Assembly and represent Moldova, a country at the forefront of the fight for democracy. Today Moldova is stronger and more resilient than a year ago. We firmly believe in a democratic future and support Ukraine as it continues to resist Russia’s brutal invasion,”
[speaking about Russia]
“Their arsenal includes energy blackmail, support for separatism, provoking mass anti-government protests, cyber attacks and disinformation. They also tried to overthrow our democratically elected government. But every time they failed. We know that in the next elections they will try to undermine the ability of our citizens to make their choice democratically,”
President Sandu also met with President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on the sidelines of the event. She thanked the US President for American support and for the lasting “strategic partnership” and “close relations” between the countries.
In addition, the president met with representatives of Google who promised $1 million dollars in support to Moldova in the area of cybersecurity.
Political Updates
Last week, Moldova said farewell to the country’s first President Mircea Snegur. Speaking at the state funeral President Sandu praised the first President and his legacy saying:
"With the passing of his reign to the eternal ones, the country loses not only a founding father. The country loses a true politician. […] His memorable words "long live independent Moldova", spoken on August 27, 1991, conveyed to the whole world that the people's expectation is to place Moldova on the map of the free world, and our duty is to continue on this path, opened by our first president "
After the ceremony President Snegur was laid to rest in Chisinau’s central Armeneasca cemetery.
Other Political News
Here’s a rapid fire roundup of the key political news to watch from the past week:
Moldova joins the EU Civil projection mechanism. This EU structure coordinates civil protection responses including fire fighting, search and rescue and more in the case of natural disasters. By joining Moldova can benefit from such support and is expected to contribute resources to support other block members in crisis.
Parliament votes to extend the state of emergency for 60 days. This vote has become routine as the government has indicated that the state of emergency will continue until the war in Ukraine and hybrid threats from Russia end.
The Ministry of Education has announced plans for installing school bathrooms. 32 schools will get access to running water and indoor bathrooms by the end of 2023. 118 more schools will be upgraded in 2024. Some rural schools who have no access to water or sewage at all will be slotted for 2025 when the Ministry will target all schools being connected to sanitary systems. Today, many schools have running water for cooking and washing but rely on outhouses for students and teachers bathroom facilities.
Chisinau Mayor Ceban was officially nominated as the candidate of his new MAN Party. Recall, last election he ran as a socialist but later left to create this new “pro-European” party largely made up of other former Socialists.
The Parties PLDM and PUN have officially completed their merger. Former Prime Minister Vlad Filat will lead the new merged party. The parties are attempting to stake out a pro-EU, anti-PAS and pro-Union position. The attempts by Filat to return to political prominence are interesting but not very significant as neither party commands popular support.
The Shor-affiliated Sance (Chance) party nominates former teacher Cristina Vulpe for mayor of Chisinau. The former teacher taught Ilan Shor Romanian and claims that the time spent with him totally changed her worldview. She appears ready to run on a populist agenda similar to that used by Shor in Gagauzia.
Justice Reform
This week news broke that Iulian Muntean, recently appointed to the Supreme Council of Magistracy SCM in one of the non-judge positions, was implicated in a corruption investigation back in 2018. The new member of the SCM has just passed the pre-vetting process and news of his involvement in an alleged corrupt scheme was not uncovered in the process.
According to journalists, in 2018 Iulian Muntean was working at ASEM university and was detained by anti-corruption officers (CNA) as part of an alleged widespread cash-for-grades scheme at the university. Muntean responded in a statement saying that he was detained for 72 hours and his laptop, phone and a small amount of money were confiscated but returned 10 days later. He says that no charges were ever filed and that the whole case was fabricated by the Plahotniuc regime in retribution against teachers who did not participate in rallying students and staff to support Plaha’s Party of Democrats PD during the election campaign.
The Pre-Vetting Commission has stated that they received no information from any law enforcement agency about Mr. Muntean’s detention during the vetting process. They also noted that his consideration was public and that no one came forward about the alleged case. At the same time, in his disclosure forms Mr. Muntean also did not disclose the investigation and detention. Responding to criticism, the CNA stated that they did not report the investigation because it was never officially recorded officially in any documents.
Head of the Parliamentary Justice Committee Olesea Stamate commented on the situation saying:
“The charges are serious. There is nothing about a criminal case in the decision of the Pre-vetting Commission. I don’t have all the information yet, so I can conclude that the commission was not informed about this. And here are two important points: information to the commission is provided by government agencies - the National Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, the National Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office and the ISS. If this person is indeed involved in a criminal case, then why did they not notify the Pre-vetting Commission about this when they requested information about him? And second: if during an interview a candidate is asked whether he is involved in a criminal case, then it means he hid this information. Then I don’t see how he can continue to work in the SCM,”
Crime and Corruption Updates
Renaissance Party MPs Alexandru Nesterovschi and Irina Lozovan were moved from preliminary detention to 30 days arrest. Following the investigation that we wrote about in this week’s Quick Hit article both MPs went before a judge and were remanded to custody for 30 days pending trial.
Igor Dodon leaves Moldova for vacation in Romania. This is his first trip outside the country in a year and a half after a judge lifted travel restrictions on the former president accused of corruption.
The mayor of Nisporeni, Grigorii Robu, and 2 others were placed under house arrest for 30 days. They are accused in a case of abuse of office and making false statements. Prosecutors say that the mayor has admitted his guilt. No other information about the alleged criminal actions were published.
Moldovan Security and Transnistria Updates
This past week saw a minor scandal on social media as the National Army conducted military exercises with Romanian and American soldiers around Moldova. The exercises involved around 500 military personnel and are part of the annual "Fire Shield" exercise which has been held since 2015. In videos published in Telegram a man carrying a small child approaches soldiers holding exercises in a field and loudly berates them in broken English and Romanian demanding that they get off “his land.” The man then attempts to inspect their weapons to verify that they are not using live rounds. Eventually the soldiers had to call the police to deal with him. The Army has asked all citizens to refrain from publishing photos or videos of soldiers or military equipment and says that it coordinated all exercises with local authorities and announced them to local residents.
A Socialist MP berated the army saying:
“Just imagine the situation a resident finds himself in. Military equipment enters the village, which is located far from national roads, in the morning. A few tens of meters from the village, military exercises begin, and soldiers can be heard speaking English. And this is against the backdrop of how every day people hear from their TV screens about the war in a neighboring country and the threat of invasion,”
Speaker of Parliament Grosu responded:
“Madam Deputy, the only dangerous army in our vicinity is the Russian army. An army of criminals kills civilians, and this is the only danger,”
Other Security News
Here’s a rapid fire roundup of the key security stories of the past week:
Moldovan journalist Elena Covalenco was turned back at the Transnistrian “border” and banned from entering the region for 3 years. She says that she was only going to the region to see a Sheriff football (soccer) game. The Moldovan Ministry for Reintegration has promised to respond to the banning of a journalist.
Moldovan and Transnistrian economic delegations met for the first time in 2 years. Representatives of Moldova’s Ministry for Reintegration criticized the Transnistrian side following the meeting for “politicized speech” and unfounded accusations against the Chisinau government. The Transnistrians claim that exports from engineering companies in the region are being blocked as “dual use” and do not agree with the application of sanctions to their products. The “leaders” of Transnistria recently complained about these problems to the US Ambassador calling them a “blockade.”
Transnistria has begun fining drivers without Transnistrian license plates for not having local car insurance. This is seen as a retaliatory action against the Moldovan government’s requirement that Transnistrian cars have Moldovan insurance when driving on the right bank.
A group of “scientists” from Russia and Central Asia were barred from entering Moldova. The group claimed to be linguists traveling to a conference on the Russian language in Transnistria. The Kremlin called this another “hostile step.” In total 46 persons, including the 15 philologists, were barred from entry in that 24 hour period. Moldova continues to turn back large numbers of people trying to enter the country daily if their motivations are not clear or there are other suspicions about their reasons for entering the country.
Multiple bomb threats were called in this week and turned out to be false alarms. The shopping mall MallDova was evacuated due to a threat as was a school in Botanica. Two threats were called in against the office building that previously held Plahotnuic’s Democratic Party PD. Police are looking for the perpetrators.
Moldova’s head of the Border Police Rosian Vasiloi has announced he is taking unpaid leave. He says that he is under investigation for “criminal negligence” after being formally reprimanded by the government in relation to the shooting at the Chisinau airport this summer. A few days after stepping down he announced that he is filing a lawsuit against the Ministry of Internal Affairs alleging unfair treatment in the situation.
Russian strikes in the Danube delta continue to threaten Romania. Romanian authorities sent text alerts to residents of northern Tulcea county near the Ukrainian and Moldovan borders on the evening of September 17th and morning of the 18th to watch for falling debris. No solid reports of drones or missiles coming down in this rural region of Romania were reported, but the Romanian authorities have begun civil protection messaging and even installing bomb shelters in some localities.
An S-300 missile landed in the village of Kitskany in Transnistria last night. The missile was apparently shot down as residents heard and explosion which was observed in the air. The missile fell with its warhead intact in a house garden but did not explode. Transnistrian sappers are removing the missile.
President Sandu in an interview with France 24 spoke about the future of Transnistria. She stressed that resolution of the frozen conflict is not a condition for Moldova’s EU ascension but noted that a window of opportunity may be coming saying:
“We believe that when Ukraine wins the war, a geopolitical opportunity may arise to resolve the Transnistrian conflict. But provided that this happens peacefully. In the meantime, we are preparing for this geopolitical opportunity,”
Economic and Infrastructure News
Here’s a rapid fire roundup of the top economic and infrastructure news this week:
The association Farmer’s Power is demanding a ban on imports of sunflower products through the end of 2023. The association claims that imports of sunflower products from Ukraine are destabilizing an already fragile market in Moldova affected by drought. The association claims that the American-Moldovan company Transoil has imported 9 wagonloads of raw materials for processing into sunflower oil in the past week with 30 more on the way. The association claims that Transoil has contracts for hundreds of thousands of tons of material that will be imported before the end of the year. The Ministry of Agriculture says that there have been zero imports of sunflower products and that "banning imports that don’t exist is stupid.” When asked by Farmer’s Power, Transoil representatives “became aggressive” and did not deny the claims. Transoil has not responded to comments from journalists. Meanwhile, Minister of Agriculture Bolea was in Brussels at the Conference on European Farmers asking for more assistance saying:
“Only together we can become stronger and we can effectively fight poverty. We need support to maintain the corridor of solidarity and save farmers who are on the brink of disaster,”
Following the shooting this summer, the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization conducted an inspection and evaluation of security at the Chisinau airport. The inspection results were positive showing a "high level" of airport security for passengers, crew and support staff.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection is working on a new energy subsidy scheme for winter. Last year households were ranked in 4 tiers ranging from “very vulnerable” to “not vulnerable” for the provision of subsidies. 80% of households in the country fell into the “very vulnerable” category. This year there will be 6 tiers and the ministry is working to connect to banks, credit companies and the border police to verify applicant’s information and prevent fraud. Specifically they are seeking to verify that people apply for subsidies are actually in the country over the winter.
Energy Minister Parlikov is seeking to reassure households saying that “this year will be easier.” The Minister says that Moldova has gas reserves sufficient to last until February and that coal and fuel oil reserves are being replenished. He noted that Moldova buys gas on the open market now for $430 / 1000 cubic meters which is cheaper than the price offered by GazProm of $564. The Minister stated "We have never been better prepared for the winter season than now."
Ending on a High Note
Last week a wooden boat was found sunk in the Nistru that archeologists believe dates from medieval times. The National Agency for Archeology is still studying the small boat but have a preliminary belief that it could be around 1000 years old. The Nistru river was once a major artery for Viking raids and trade routes which brought cargo, especially captured slaves, to eastern markets via the black sea. Few now talk about the Viking history of Moldova but this discovery might spur more interest in the country’s distant past.