Thanks for bearing with me last week as I took a week off for the Thanksgiving Holiday! For those so inclined I hope you enjoyed some turkey and a good time with friends and family. This week we’ll play some catch up and take a look at the key stories we missed as well as those driving the news cycle this week in Moldova!
Political Updates
These past two weeks have been relatively quiet as Parliament works to pass key pieces of legislation before the winter holidays. Firstly, they passed the budget for 2022 which saw few major fiscal changes over last year’s budget. Some types of tobacco products, especially vaping products received tax increases to align with other tobacco such as cigarettes and winnings from gambling will now be taxed at 18% instead of 12%. A new 12% tax on scrap metal collection will also be levied in the coming year. Objecting to these changes Socialist MP Peter Burduja asked why a 0% tax on reinvested profits for companies wasn’t included in this package? His logic was that companies have been struggling this past year and a tax break on money reinvested in the economy was only logical. While he makes a fairly strong point it is worth noting just how out in the wilderness the Socialist party is right now. A 0% reinvestment tax rate is something you would expect PAS to introduce as the pro-small business center-right party. Meanwhile, the Socialists have spent most of the last year talking about social spending and opportunities to find budget space for new social programs. As usual, and as we have discussed before at Modova Matters, there isn’t really a left or right in Moldovan politics. But this is still striking as a demonstration of the willingness of the opposition to simply take whatever position is available to create contrast.
Meanwhile, Parliament passed a bill outlawing advertising of gambling products. This bill was promoted by PAS MP Dumitru Alaiba and was squarely targeted at the so-called National Lottery which is in fact the only type of gambling that is currently allowed to be advertised. The national lottery was conceived as a public-private partnership under the Plahotniuc government and after extensive investigations it was found that very little of the proceeds returned to the state. Most of the money bounces between a web of offshore companies to this day, with a nexus around Bulgaria and the gulf states. Outlawing advertising of the lottery is a way to clamp down on its business while buying some time to untangle the whole mess in a more comprehensive way.
The Mayor’s Election in Balti, Surprise, Drama and Squid Games?
After Balti Mayor Renato Usati resigned this summer a special election to replace him was set and the first round was conducted last week. Shor Party candidate Marina Tauber won 47.93% of the vote with second place going to independent candidate Nikolai Grigorishin with 20.93%. The PAS and Socialist Communist Block candidates each got exactly 14.08% of the vote with the PAS candidate actually beating the Socialist candidate by 3 votes in Balti (a heavily Russian speaking city). Since election law requires the winner to receive over 50% of the vote a second round runoff election was scheduled for 2 weeks after the first vote between Marina Tauber and Nikolai Grigorishin.
However, things took a surprise turn this week when the Central Election Commission CEC voted to remove Marina Tauber as a candidate from the race due to financial discrepancies in her reported party spending. While reviewing the financial reports and investigating the conduct of the election the CEC found that Shor party volunteers were housed and fed 3 meals a day during the campaign with resources that were not declared. Specifically, they found their food supplier had delivered meals worth 152,000 MDL ($8560) to the campaign office accepting payments in cash with no official party spending records. The food supplier also noted that he had been interviewed by Moldova’s Security and Information Service SIS before the CEC. So it seems other state agencies have been keeping an eye on Shor’s notoriously “opaque” party finances as well.
Replying to the accusations, Tauber said “should I declare my clothes too!!?” and made various arguments about how these meals could have been donated by family or other persons. The leader of the CEC responded "Madam Candidate, the whole country is used to your deception. I learned this information from your people in the tents. They all told themselves how they are fed three times a day.” The vote in the CEC carried 6 for removing Tauber and 2 abstaining. The issue must now be decided by the courts in Balti who will consider the CEC decision and make a final ruling on Tauber’s candidacy.
In reacting to the news, various political parties took rather different approaches. Igor Dodon spoke for the Socialists expressing outrage and continuing his now common line about Moldova descending into an “authoritarian regime” similar to when Plahotnuic was in power. PAS MP Dumitru Alaiba said “Democracy should not be about those who steal more money and secretly channel it into politics. Democracy is a battle of ideas, not “bags.”” Here “bags” refers to the process of handing bribes our in plastic bags and specifically to video of Mr. Dodon receiving such a “bag” from Mr. Plahotniuc in the past. By far the most original take was from former mayor Usatii who posted a Squid Game themed graphic of himself as the killer “redlight greenlight” doll eliminating electoral competitors as they seek to replace him.
Provided here without comment.
Source Agora.md / Renato Usatii
A Scandal at the People’s Ombudsman
This week, a scandal broke from the office of the People's Advocate for Human Rights (People’s Ombudsman) when it emerged that the newly appointed Ombudsman was employing a convicted pimp in an unofficial capacity in her office. Parliament appointed Ombudsman Natalya Moloshag in September for a 7 year term as the country's premier defender of human rights. In this position the Ombudsman focuses on cases of the abuse of those who cannot defend themselves including children and victims of domestic abuse (among others). Seeing a convicted pimp at her right hand set off a firestorm on social media. Responding to the criticism Ombudsman Moloshag responded that she had previously defended this man as a lawyer and gave him a job after his prison term in order to reintegrate him into society. She made the point that it was very hard for convicted felons to get jobs. While this is undoubtedly true, most commentators noted how improper it is to have a convicted pimp in close proximity to confidential case information. Following calls from civil society Parliament asked for the Ombudsman’s resignation and she gave it.
A Still Rumbling Energy Crisis
Last week, the energy crisis raised its ugly head again with GazProm abruptly threatening to cut off Moldova within 48 hours if payments for October and November gas provisions were not made immediately. MoldovaGaz was apparently late on payments due to a cash crunch created by the higher gas tariff in November and the government’s decision only to raise consumer prices and provide subsidies starting in December. The Moldovan government talked with GazProm and bought some time to reallocate money to solve this new mini-crisis. They did this by means of a complicated scheme whereby the state allocated $74 million dollars to Energcomm, a state owned energy supplier. This company then paid GazProm while reallocating historical debts from the state owned Termoelectric company to MoldovaGaz in the same amount of $74,000. This allowed direct state aid to flow in spite of MoldovaGaz only partly being a state owned company. The bottom line is that the gas keeps flowing. For now.
Responding to the resolution of this crisis GazProm noted that the government covering these debts instead of consumers is not a great sign for Moldova’s economic organization and that Moldova should get its house in order. While the point is fair, it lands a little sourly coming from GazProm.
Meanwhile, Moldova continues to pursue strategies to create resilience in the energy sector. This week Moldova’s Foriegn Minister explained that the country is considering using gas storage facilities in Romania in order to create a strategic reserve. He noted that right now Moldova does not need to allocate funding to create its own strategic reserve infrastructure due to slack in the Romanian and Ukrainian storage networks but that they will consider new local infrastructure in the future.
Finally, as consumers will soon be receiving their first gas bills at the new and higher prices, the Minister of Infrastructure announced how new gas bills will look. These bills will first show the topline prices according to the new rate and then will show the amounts compensated by state subsidies in yellow highlighting, followed by the final amount to be paid. Given the political danger the government faces by rising gas prices this is clearly an attempt to communicate with the public just how much the subsidies are saving consumers month to month. We’ll have to wait and see if consumers are grateful for the savings… or simply angry that prices went up in the end.
Foriegn Affairs and Regional Tensions
Anyone following the news around Eastern Europe these past 2 weeks will no doubt be aware of a brewing storm east of Moldova in Ukraine. Russia has once again been massing troops on its borders with Ukraine but unlike past military exercises or buildups, the moves of the past month have set off alarm bells throughout Europe and the United States (not to mention Ukraine).
Here’s a link to an English-language roundup of what Russia may be up to and what Ukraine is warning about.
We won’t dive too deeply into these unfolding tensions as it gets a bit out of the scope of Moldova Matters but it’s important to see how things are being discussed in Moldova right now and what the news stories here entail. Firstly, it’s worth noting that in the Moldovan press very little of this situation is being discussed. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are nothing new in this part of the world and the fears that this time might be different have little crossed over into the Moldovan conversation. This week though at the OSCE Summit in Summit Moldova’s Minister of Foriegn Affairs Nicu Popescu met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines as well as key EU and NATO leaders. This was in the context of the US and NATO reaffirming support for Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity and before Blinken and Russian Foriegn Minister Lavrov met for what has been called a “frank conversation.”
While very little of this story involves Moldova right now, there are some conversations that hit close to home. In the presentations given by the Ukrainian military command outlining a potential Russian invasion they claim that their intelligence shows Russian troops based in Transnistria preparing to support an amphibious landing to take Odessa. While this assessment isn’t new and has been discussed since the 2014 war began in Ukraine, what is new is that former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton decided to weigh in with an Op-Ed this week. Here was his takeaway on the Ukraine issue:
“One of the measures that should become a priority is the elimination of the Transnistrian Republic, an artificial formation that is completely dependent on Russia politically. By putting pressure on Moscow to achieve complete reunification of Moldova, we will divert Putin's attention from Ukraine."
Now this *did* get press in Moldova, though thankfully most people seem to have realized that the aging architect of the Iraq War does not speak for anyone serious in this US Administration.
One more significant update at the end of this week was the EU Council’s announcement that it had allocated new funds to support the defensive capabilities of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Moldova will get 7 million euros in aid over 36 months directed at non-lethal support such as military medical services and ordinance disposal capabilities.
So we’re going to keep an eye on how these stories develop and how Moldova is implicated in the unfolding events in the east. In the meantime, it’s very important to remember that regional tensions are not new and that diplomatic off-ramps have plenty of time to prevail in this situation as they have in the past.
Quick Side Note - the Demise and Rebirth of the Kyiv Post (now Kyiv Independent)
If you were trying to follow what is going on in Ukraine more closely you may have noticed that the country’s premier English language newspaper the Kyiv Post fired its entire team and closed in November as the paper’s wealthy new owner tried to take editorial control from the journalists. Thankfully, the journalists from the Kyiv Post have created the brand new Kyiv Independent which launched its new website just this week. Check them out for some great English language coverage of all things Ukraine!
COVID-19 Update
These past 2 weeks Moldova’s 3rd COVID wave has continued to subside with a current 7-day average of 578 new cases per day and 25 deaths per day at time of writing.
While the clear downward trends on these graphs is good news, they still represent a large number of cases and deaths for a country as small as Moldova. In response the Ministry of Health extended the State of Health Emergency until January 15th keeping all restrictions in place at this time. This is largely a formality as Moldova has not left the State of Health Emergency since the pandemic began in early 2020.
Omicron is Up Next
With this Delta wave receding, it’s hard not to look just ahead and see Omicron coming. The new variant which was first detected in South Africa is not yet present in Moldova but cases are appearing in Europe causing lockdowns and discussions of vaccine mandates across the continent. Moldova has responded by closing the borders to people coming from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini and Malawi. All vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers from these countries will need to quarantine for 14 days on arrival but can leave quarantine after 7 days with a negative COVID test. Additional measures against Omicron are “under discussion” but no information has been provided publicly at this time.
Vaccines and Boosters
Last week Moldova announced that booster shots would begin November 29th and start with high risk groups - Medical Workers, People over 60, people over 18 with risk of chronic disease, social workers, and education workers. The list of people eligible for boosters will expand gradually over time. All vaccines currently in use are available for boosters but they will target 3rd doses of whichever vaccine people got for their first shot(s).
Moldova continues to maintain a strong supply of vaccines and just received a first delivery of 50,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine through COVAX.
Crime and Corruption Updates
This week the former deputy minister of the interior was arrested over allegations of “illegal enrichment.” Local paper ZdG uncovered the former minister of the Plahotniuc PD government selling a palatial residence on the banks of the nistru with an asking price of 320,000 euros. Officially the official valued his house at $7,000 in his wealth declarations.
Additionally, Mr. Platon was charged once again with prosecutors requesting another arrest warrant for the fugitive “businessman.” Platon is accused of leading a criminal group whose purpose was to "National Bureau of Motor Insurers of Moldova" of 20 million lei ($1.12 million dollars). Presumably this arrest warrant will go onto the stack labeled “Platon” and be forwarded to Interpol as just one more reason to justify an international arrest warrant for the fugitive currently living in London.
Ending on a High Note!
This week’s high note has to be about the receding Delta wave of COVID. Maybe Omicron is coming to Moldova. Maybe it’s coming to the whole world. Who knows. If there’s one thing that 2020 and 2021 have taught us is that predictions are a dangerous thing to get involved in. For now, things are getting better. And that’s worth taking a moment to celebrate.
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