Weekly Roundup
July 17 - July 23
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Political Updates - a New Government is Coming
Moldova is currently in the transition period between the old parliament and the new. The Central Election Commission officially approved the election results this week and sent them to the Constitutional Court for validation. Once this is done, the new parliament will be sworn in and begin the work of forming a Government. PAS President Igor Grosu has indicated that the new parliament may begin work as soon as July 26th.
What Can we Expect from this PAS Government?
When looking to the expected actions of the new government, there are 3 people to watch. President Maia Sandu, and the two candidates that she nominated for Prime Minister this spring during the political crisis. PAS Vice President Natalia Gavrilita and PAS party President Igor Grosu. All three principles made statements this week indicating the first priorities of the parliament and government.
President Sandu stated that the first law passed by Parliament would be one that “cleansed the judiciary and prosecutor’s office.” It would do so by creating a commission partly staffed with international experts to conduct evaluations on all serving judges and prosecutors. The goal will be to attack the most serious corruption schemes immediately by cutting off their access to corrupt officials in the justice system. President Sandu said that the reform will take months to complete but will start immediately. She pointed to a similar system of evaluations used in Albania to clean their judicial system as a guide. She says “in some months, only honest judges will remain in Moldova.”
Igor Grosu stated first that he will remain in parliament indicating he will not leave for a position in government. This indication that he will not be nominated for Prime Minister leaves him as the most senior PAS official in parliament and suggests he will be the next President of Parliament. In outlining the priorities of the new parliament, he identified 3 priorities. First, the elimination of “parliamentary immunity;” a law that prevents members of parliament from being arrested or prosecuted during their time in office. Secondly, the confiscation of illegally acquired property in the hands of state officials. Finally, they will increase the minimum pension to 2000 lei by october. Mr. Grosu also stated that they will propose a constitutional amendment whereby public officials and their relatives will be forced to prove the origins of their wealth and property or lose it to confiscation. PAS does not have a majority to approve a constitutional amendment and would need votes from the Socialist and Shor parties in order to pass this bill. It is possible some MPs will cross party lines but not very likely. More likely this is a messaging bill targeted directly at the wealth of people like Ilan Shor and designed to make his party and the Socialists vote against it.
Natalia Gavrilita also made a statement about the first actions of the PAS Government. In an interview, she stated that the primary objective after the elections is cleaning up state institutions and punishing the thieves who stole from the people. She said that this is a goal, and it will take time to develop the policies to implement it. But Gavrilita was very direct, saying “I have an appeal to people who know they are compromised - not to wait for us, to leave as soon as possible, to prepare for their exit. Because the moment we come, we will have a different discussion.”
The US Embassy and the Republican Stadium
As Ambassador Hogan prepares to leave Moldova, the never ending controversy of the Republican Stadium has reemerged with the Constitutional Court striking down a law proposed by the Socialists and Shor parties to prevent the US Embassy from buying the land. Ok, what is this about? Well, the US Government has been shopping for land in order to construct a new Embassy for some years. In 2018 they reached an agreement with the Moldovan Government to buy the Republican Stadium, an abandoned public stadium in the center of the city. This has been extremely controversial since it was announced. Many people remember the stadium from their childhood, with running tracks and areas for sports competitions of many kinds. But Mr. Voronin chose to abandon the stadium over a decade ago for unclear reasons. Now it is a crumbling eyesore with an enormous population of stray dogs. The US Government proposed building a new facility and renovating some of the space as a public park incorporating the architecture of the old stadium gates and other features into the design. No amount of such accommodations sways people who do not believe a public building (or wreck of one) should be sold to the US Government. The Socialists and Shor parties attempted to cancel the sale last year with Shor publicly stating that he wanted to build an amusement park there. This week’s ruling by the Constitutional Court striking down this law on technicalities puts the stadium back in the hands of the US Government. Mr. Dodon calls this a conspiracy orchestrated by President Sandu and has threatened protests over the court decision.
Mr. Dodon Is Looking for a New Name for his Vlog
Since leaving the office of President, Mr. Dodon never changed the name of his video blog "President Igor Dodon is Responding.” This caused quite a lot of consternation and more than a few jokes on social media, but he kept at it saying as recently as last week that “president can mean a lot of things - why should the new president monopolize this word?” Apparently, this argument is finally running out of steam and Mr. Dodon announced a contest for renaming his weekly vlog. People should send suggestions to him and he will invite the authors of the best 3 ideas to come and meet him and discuss their vision for his weekly video. We will have to see what the creativity of the masses has for Mr. Dodon, but it is easy to imagine, given how the internet works, that he may not receive as many thoughtful entries as he might hope.
President Sandu pushes Foriegn Policy Goals
President Sandu traveled to Georgia this week to meet with her Ukrainian and Georgian counterparts, Presidents Zelenski and Zourabichvili, as well as the Charles Michel President of the European Council. During the summit, Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia affirmed their EU direction and discussed common challenges - most notably, that all 3 countries have been invaded and occupied by Russia. President Sandu gave a statement at the summit thanking the EU for its support of Moldova and pledges of further support following the elections. But she specifically said that Moldova has its own homework to do. No amount of external support will make up for failures to implement reform at home. She stressed that reformers now have the political power and will to make this happen.
Later in the week, President Sandu gave an interview stating that she is seeking a pragmatic and substantive relationship with Russia. She will seek a meeting with President Putin after the new Government is invested and will focus on issues of trade, diaspora in Russia, and the Transnistria issue.
COVID-19 Update
COVID cases in Moldova are showing a slight uptick in the past week with a 7 day average of 80 cases and 2 deaths per day. In recent days, the daily count has jumped over 100 cases for the first time since May. While we are not seeing indications that the 3rd wave is here, most in the government believe it is imminent. Starting on July 19th new restrictions were put into place mandating masks in all indoor space and outdoors when people must be close together such as at a bus stop. Restaurants are redacted in allowed capacity and events are capped to 50 persons with the organizer being responsible for collecting contact tracing information.
While harsher lockdown measures have some effect on cases, the main indicator of just how bad a 3rd wave will be is the vaccination rate. Unfortunately, things are still moving slowly. Around 15% of the population has had at least 1 shot and 11% is fully vaccinated. While that does not count dual citizens who got vaccinated in Romania, it is still clear that vaccination rates are nowhere near sufficient to slow down new variants. One hopeful indicator is that last week, 78,000 people were vaccinated, a 37% increase over the week before. Hopefully we continue to see positive trends with more people choosing to get the shot.
In response to these factors, and the wave of infections moving through Europe, the WHO is preparing to recommend that countries begin compulsory vaccination in the region. The Moldovan government apparently agrees and has told companies that they must assure that 70% of their staff is vaccinated by September 1. While this is currently a mandate without a clear enforcement mechanism, government spokespeople have told reporters that they intend to be as harsh as Moscow has been in their wave. This implies that when infections pick up, companies with lower vaccination rates could simply be closed or forced to lay off unvaccinated workers. Meanwhile, Romania has taken a slightly different approach and told essential workers that they have a choice - get vaccinated, or get tested every day. But the vaccine is free and the tests are not. Whatever the mechanism… carrot or stick… It is clear that uptake must change significantly to have a chance of keeping the economy open during the fall.
Vaccine Update
In total, vaccine supply in Moldova continues to far exceed demand. But in terms of specific vaccines that is not the case. People have become accustomed to choosing their shot and many are waiting for their vaccine of choice, generally Pfizer or Sputnik, to become available. Thankfully, Romania has donated 100,000 doses of Pfizer to Moldova that arrived friday. Since Sputnik generally arrived at times of political significance for Mr. Dodon, it seems fair to assume no more will be coming now that the election is over. One unknown in the vaccination process is Johnson and Johnson which arrived last week. We don’t yet have numbers about how popular this option is, but since only 1 shot is required it does have the potential to be a game changer for Moldova.
Meanwhile, Moldova has begun issuing digital vaccine certificates. If you are fully vaccinated in Moldova and want to download yours to keep on your phone follow this link.
Economic Update
No Fuel Crisis… for now
The national energy regulator has temporarily waived some caps on wholesale fuel pricing in order to prevent a crisis in the supply chain. This has resulted in rising prices and more accusations by various members of parliament of cartel actions by the oil companies. In response, the energy regulators have noted that the price of a barrel of oil has substantially jumped this year. All parties continue to point fingers but at least there isn’t a gas shortage.
A Wine Marathon?
Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban approved the Chisinau City marathon be organized on the same day as the National Wine Day celebrations. This means that both events will take place on October 3rd in the same place. The National Office of Vine and Wine is appealing to the mayor to change the marathon as this is a very important event for the wine industry and it’s hard to see it merging well with a marathon. No resolution has been announced to date so we’ll have to see what comes of this strange marriage of events.
The IMF is Feeling Generous
The IMF announced this week that it will provide Moldova $400 million dollars in assistance that will arrive in September. This money will have no conditions and can be used by the new government to support whatever programs or reforms they want. Worldwide the IMF is allocating $650 billion dollars “to help countries meet long term global needs.”
Corruption News
It seems that this section will start to get quite long as potential targets of the new government preemptively flee Moldova and investigations and reforms get underway. This week, a major cyberattack hit the Accounts Chamber, a government body tasked with audits and investigations. President Sandu suggested this was an attempt to cover the tracks of various corrupt officials in advance of the new government coming to power. The Moldovan Security and Information Service SIS (the domestic and foriegn intelligence agency) is investigating and has made referrals to the prosecutor's office. There is some lack of clarity about how back the cyber attack was with initial reporting suggesting that the entire internal database of the Accounts Chamber was whipped out. The current President of the Accounts Chamber Marian Lupu disputes this saying that the attack only damaged their public facing website. Mr. Lupu is the former head of Mr. Plahotnuic’s Democratic Party and a very close associate of the oligarch. Furthermore, information security at the Accounts Chamber was contracted to DAAC Systems, an IT company founded by a city councilor from the Socialist party. While more details are needed to understand the attack and its implications, local press has been clear that there was motive and opportunity for corrupt forces to cover their tracks.
Mr. Platon Flees Moldova
Businessman Veaceslav Platon has fled Moldova flying first to London and then on to the Czech Republic. This has caused outrage as Platon is implicated in multiple criminal cases and until recently was not allowed to leave the country. The prosecutor’s office lifted his travel restrictions in a move that is inexplicable to those who want him brought to justice for his many, many, alleged crimes. This has created huge pressure on the incoming government to replace Prosecutor General Stoianoglo as an enabler of corrupt schemes. The Stoianoglo defended himself saying that he thinks Mr. Platon will return of his own volition to stand trial and that if he doesn’t they will issue an international arrest warrant. Given just how effective that threat has been with Plahotniuc and Shor, Mr. Platon must be very scared indeed. In a befuddling move, Stoianoglo suggested that the attacks against him had nothing to do with his letting one of the most corrupt people in Moldova just fly away, but instead because his is Gagauz. This playing of the “race card” puzzled most people who had no idea he was Gagauz or what bearing that might have on his conduct as the Prosecutor General.
Bribing Voters in Gagauzia... to vote for Turkey... in Bulgaria?
The press this week broke the news of a very strange scandal in Gagauzia implicating the Bashkhan (governor) Irina Vlah. On July 11th, on the same day as the Moldovan Elections, Bulgaria held parliamentary elections as well. They opened 6 polling stations for Bulgarian citizens in Gagauzia and according to investigations by Bulgarian journalists voters were bribed 500 lei to vote for the pro-Turkish DPS party. This party in Bulgaria advocates for a pro-Turkey position and for the rights of the Turish minority in Bulgaria. DPS received only 2 votes in Gagauzia during the last parliamentary elections which were only 3 months ago. This time they won Gagauzia receiving nearly 500 votes. Bulgarian officials saw cars parked by the polling stations where voters would show a picture of their ballot to validate their vote for DPS and receive cash on the spot. Bulgarian journalists believe the Bashkan was involved citing the inaction of the local police as well as the fact that she hosted a delegation of Turkish parliamentarians on the day of the vote itself. Bashkan denies these allegations.
So in summary, Bulgarian journalists allege a plot by the Turkish government to support a pro-Turkey party in Bulgaria by bribing dual Bulgarian-Moldovan citizens in Gagauzia and enlisting the support of the Bashkan of Gagauzia in the process. That takes the cake for Moldova’s strangest scandal of the week.
RISE Reports - the Soviet Cocaine Union
The Investigative outlet RISE Moldova, working with their counterparts RISE Romania, has begun reporting on their much anticipated Soviet Cocaine Union story. This story tracks a decades long investigation by the United States, Europol, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Costa Rica and Moldova into a cocaine smuggling operation that channeled illegal drugs from Costa Rica through Moldova and on into Europe. The investigation is sprawling in scope and implicates Plahotniuc and Shor as well as many others inside and outside Moldova. This first installment primarily focuses on the main players and timeline of events but as RISE releases more of their investigation we will cover it with a Deep Dive installment of Moldova Matters.
Ending on a High Note!
A new trolleybus for tourists is coming to Chisinau!! The city has designated a trolleybus to run on a sightseeing route once a day and provide historical and cultural information to tourists. The route will take 1.2 hours and cost 30 lei. Now, longtime Chisinau insiders might know that for years you have been able to actually rent a whole trolly for yourself and go on this tourist route. It’s been a fun option for events and they pretty much let you do as you please… including loading a few kegs of beer in the back.
So I don’t imagine the trolleybus for tourists will be quite as fun as all that, but it’s a great initiative for the city to become more accessible to travelers and help them find their way to all that Chisinau has to offer.
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