Weekly Roundup
August 28 - September 5th
Welcome back to Moldova Matters! You’ll note that it’s Monday… Happy Monday!! Readers may be a bit confused about what happened this weekend. The newsletter was supposed to come out Friday and then we sent a message saying it would be Saturday and now… here we are on Monday. Very sorry for the confusion and inconvenience. I was traveling this weekend and massively overestimated how much time I would have and my internet connection where I was staying. So, better late than never, here’s our Weekly Roundup which now covers events through the weekend. This week, we’ll be back on schedule with a Friday Weekly Roundup. Thanks for understanding and sorry for the confusion!!
Happy National Language Day!
Tuesday August 31st was “Limba Noastră” Moldova’s celebration of the national language, though the holiday is always rather contentious as politicians debate just what that language is. Following independence, Limba Noastră became a celebration of the country’s return to official use of most of the population’s native Romanian language after decades of Soviet rule and imposed Russian language as well as the Cyrillic alphabet for Romanian… which the Soviets called “Moldovan” as a way to drive a cultural wedge between residents of the two sides of the Prut river. This wedge issue remains in Moldovan politics with the Russian oriented parties continuing to use “Moldovan” and driving various culture war narratives on this question.
Addressing citizens, President Sandu congratulated everyone on the holiday and spoke of her desire that Romanian increasingly become the common language of communication between Moldova’s diverse Ukrainian, Russian, Gagauz, Bulgarian and other ethnic minority communities. She proposed new programs going forward for state supported language education for adults to make this more of a reality.
The National Academy of Sciences weighed in on the culture war proposing a constitutional amendment to change the name of the state language to Romanian (confusingly, it is alternatively Romanian and Moldovan in different founding documents of the state). Mr. Grosu, the new PAS Speaker of Parliament, responded by saying that this is not an appropriate initiative as the Socialists would happily block such a move. He noted that simply having a vote in order for it to fail serves nothing except to exacerbate this culture war issue and give the Socialists a talking point. Meanwhile, Mr. Dodon released a statement calling on everyone to embrace and love the Moldovan language as much as he does.
The real winner of publicity around the holiday was Chisinau mayor Ion Ceban who posted simply “LIMBA ROMÂNĂ” on his facebook page. Since the mayor is a Socialist and previously strongly supported the “Moldovan” language option this caused quite a stir with lots of people on social media wondering what this cryptic message meant. The mayor never clarified and now we all just need to wonder what exactly he was talking about.
Parliament Cleans House
Heads are beginning to roll throughout the bureaucracy and PAS cleans house and establishes more concrete oversight of key state institutions. In a key move, PAS deputies introduced a bill giving parliament direct oversight including the ability to evaluate, and fire, the leadership of the Competition Council, National Energy Regulatory Agency, Television and Radio Council and National Agency for Dispute Resolution and the National Financial Market Commission. All these agencies are publicly discussed as hotbeds of corruption and schemes and are therefore a priority in the cleaning out of state institutions for PAS. Technically, these agencies are already subordinated to parliament but the legislature lacked clear oversight and accountability mechanisms in practice. This bill allows the relevant parliamentary committees stronger oversight powers and the ability to make key personnel changes.
PAS also proposed a bill allowing for the direct Government Appointment of the Customs Service and State Fiscal Service. Almost immediately following this news the Head of the Customs Service resigned giving no reason for his abrupt departure. It was later announced he would be replaced by PAS MP Igor Talmazan.
Meanwhile, President Sandu recalled Moldova’s Ambassadors to Russia, Belarus and Israel. All are pending replacement. Moldova’s Ambassador to Russia has recently been the subject of much scandal surrounding sexual harassment of co-workers. The reason for recalling the ambassadors to Belarus and Israel was not announced.
All in all, what we’re seeing is the rapid reorganization of the bureaucracy and removal of Plahotniuc and Dodon appointed officials from key positions. The promised “cleansing of the state” is certainly ongoing, though it will take some time to be able to judge what the outcomes of all these personnel moves will be.
Balti Mayor Usatii Resigns… Finally
After announcing on July 12th that he was going to resign, Mayor Usatii finally followed through with this promise on September 2nd. He set a date for fresh elections on November 21. Until that date, Moldova’s second largest city will be run by the Deputy Mayor in an acting capacity. Since his announcement it has been very unclear what Mr. Usatii’s endgame was with accusations that he arranged pro-himself protests of citizens trying to talk him into staying. For the moment, we now know he is no longer the mayor. But what his political future holds is anyone’s guess.
Foriegn Affairs Roundup
Moldova Reacts to Afghanistan Crisis
Parliamentary Speaker Grosu says that Moldova should not be indifferent to the plight of those fleeing Afghanistan, but that there had been no discussions yet on concrete actions. While there has been speculation about Moldova taking in refugees or otherwise helping with the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan it seems that the government and parliament currently have little appetite to get involved. That said, Moldova joined around 100 countries in a declaration of willingness to support the people of Afghanistan who are fleeing the Taliban and calling on the Taliban to honor issued visas. It remains to be seen if more concrete action will follow these diplomatic moves.
Ukraine Bans Cars with Transnestrian Number Plates
This week, Ukraine followed through with a long standing plan to bar entry to cars with Transnestrian number plates. This caused negative reactions both in Chisinau and Moscow. Moldovan politicians attempted to intervene and gain an extension of the September 1 deadline until the new year. The Kremlin has also protested saying that this is an "attempt to strangle Transnistria." For context, Transnestraisn have been able to change their plates to “neutral number” plates with no flag on it since 2018. This was a compromise between Chisinau and Tiraspol to help facilitate international travel for Transnestraians. Since 2018, only around 5% of cars have changed to neutral plates so Ukraine’s move will affect most people with cars on the left bank. It’s worth noting that Romania has long blocked travel with Transnistrean plates and neither Romania, nor Ukraine, nor almost anywhere, will accept Transestrian passports. So anyone looking to travel already needs to get their Moldovan passport (or one from Russia).
COVID-19 Updates
Currently, the 7 day average stands at 461 cases / day and 6 deaths / day in Moldova. These numbers are steadily trending upwards but do not reflect the WHO and government predicted 3rd wave just yet… though current projections continue to hold that a Delta driven wave is coming with the colder weather. Currently, the higher case rate has put Moldova nationally into a “Code Red” COVID situation and Chisinau as a city is also Code Red. Currently, no new restrictions come with this designation and people are encouraged to keep wearing masks and get vaccinated as soon as possible.
The Minister of Health is continuing her push to get as many teachers vaccinated as possible as the school year begins. President Sandu came out publicly backing the policy whereby unvaccinated school staff must be tested twice monthly at their own expense. The President noted that we have enough vaccines and that it is critical that teachers do not become vectors of spread to their unvaccinated students. She explained that this policy is critical to keeping in-person education active and that those who choose not to be vaccinated should not be subsidized by the taxpayer more than they already are. The current subsidies referring to the massive hospitalization costs for those getting sick due to their own choices.
Chisinau Mayor Ceban continues to oppose this policy and has announced that the city will pay for testing for school staff who are not vaccinated. Meanwhile, the Socialists plan to take the government to court in order to force them to pay for testing nationwide for the unvaccinated.
The Minister of Health continues to stress the effectiveness of the vaccine noting that no doctors or healthcare workers have died due to COVID for months. This is a direct result of their high vaccination rates. The Minister did release the fact that three persons who were vaccinated have died due to COVID in Moldova. One contracted the disease immediately after his first shot meaning he was not yet protected from the vaccine. The two others were both elderly with serious chronic conditions. The minister stressed that no vaccine is 100% effective for individuals but that they substantially reduce risks and that collectively vaccination is Moldova’s path out of this long crisis.
The Minister of Health has come under substantial fire on social media for these policies, especially regarding teachers. This week, trolls managed to get ahold of her personal phone number bombarding her with threats until she was forced to change numbers.
Campaign to Address the Black Market in Tests and Vaccine Certificates
This week the Ministry of Health has announced it is working with the National Anti Corruption Center to root out the black market in fake vaccine certificates and fake tests. The investigation is ongoing but has “1000s of suspects” with the minister noting that the guilty face up to 7 years in prison.
So far, police have inspected multiple vaccination clinics and testing centers. They opened 5 criminal cases for false tests noting that some cases are against individuals but others were against companies. These companies are both testing centers and tour operators who colluded to facilitate fake negative tests that would allow people to travel internationally.
New Economic Restrictions being Considered
Reporting indicates that the Ministry of Economy is considering recommending new restrictions on restaurants, clubs and other entertainment venues. The restrictions envision all employees being vaccinated or tested every 3 days. Further, businesses would be able to choose between 2 options. One, they declare their business “COVID Free” and only admit fully vaccinated or recently tested persons. The company would scan certificates at the door to assure compliance. These companies would not have any restrictions on operation other than complying with scanning vaccines. The second option for companies that do not want to do this would be to follow the distancing and capacity restrictions in force similar to past lockdown periods. Currently all these proposals are drafts and it is unclear when, or if, they will be considered by the health authorities responsible for issuing COVID related guidelines.
Economic Updates
The National Bank has raised the base interest rate to 4.65% in order to curb inflationary pressures. The bank authorities stated that ongoing disruptions due to the pandemic as well as rising international prices that affect Moldova led to this change. Meanwhile, gasoline prices are rising as the new government implements new rules governing the fuel markets. The rising prices is due to the international price of oil fluctuating and will result in Moldovan’s paying slightly more at the pump this month.
Crime and Corruption Updates
The National Bureau of Interpol in Moldova sent a request to the Interpol bureau in Lyon to add Veaceslav Platon to the wanted list for arrest and extradition. Additionally, Gheorghe Cavkalyuca is also mentioned with a request to Interpol for "information as to his whereabouts." Mr. Platon and Mr. Cavkalyuca skipped town following the election and have repeatedly failed to show up for their court dates since then.
Senior Border Police Official Sentenced for Cigarette Smuggling
The head of all the Moldovan border police on the Romanian border was sentenced to 6 years in prison for cigarette smuggling. Romanian authorities slowly pieced together a broad criminal conspiracy after reports of residents noticing an “ultralight aircraft” flying over Romanian fields. This aircraft was found to be dropping large amounts of cigarettes in a field to be picked up by accomplices on the Romanian side. But this was only the tip of the iceberg as the police realized that the head of Moldova’s border police himself was smuggling carloads of cigarettes across the border in his mercedes. His rank was sufficiently high that neither the Moldovan nor Romanian border guards ever searched the car. Ultimately, 7 persons were charged and sentenced to jail time.
Resignation from the Independent Advisory Committee on the Fight Against Corruption
Journalist Alina Radu has resigned as the co-chair of the Independent Advisory Committee on the Fight Against Corruption, founded by the President this spring. Radu stated that external donors to her newspaper, ZdG, questioned her objectivity and journalistic integrity because she was on this Presidential Commission. Recall the commission was formed under the Presidency but was designed to be totally independent. It started work on June 8th but has remained secretive with no reporting discussing what they are investigating. The other co-chair is American James Wasserstrome, a former UN whistleblower and anti-corruption professional. James is a fascinating character in the anti-corruption world - you can learn more about him in this recent interview for the Kickback Global Anti Corruption podcast.
Government Disrupts Major Procurement Scheme
The Prime Minister has announced the cancelation of a major scheme in public procurement put in place by the outgoing government. In this scheme, the former government illegally rushed a tender for a 500 million lei purchase of documents for over a million passports and ID cards. Prime Minister Gavrilita noted that this huge expenditure was made in the middle of a financial crisis and in spite of the fact that the government has stockpiles of such documents sufficient to last at least a year. There were further irregularities as the winning bid was the most expensive one with a competing Romanian company having offered 163 million lei. The winner was a Lithuanian company, but it was found that money was actually sent to a Bulgarian company with 2 employees and no clear competency in document production. This scheme has been stopped and potential charges are being considered.
Ending on a High Note!
Harry Potter in Tiraspol?! Well… kinda. A university in Transnistria recently unveiled a statue dedicated to its incoming student applicants. While the statue is supposed to represent all students… It's pretty clearly a young wizard setting off on his Hogwarts adventures. While it isn’t clear why this decision was made, social media had quite a lot of fun talking about it and discussing which house of Hogwarts the Tiraspol authorities would likely be in… with Slytherin taking the lead.
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