Weekly Roundup: 75th Anniversary of Stalin's Deportations

June 10, 2024

Parliament Marks the 75th Anniversary of Stalin’s Deportations

On July 4th parliament began its session with a moment of silence marking the 75th anniversary of the second wave of Stalinist deportations. In this wave 35,000 people were deported from Moldova to Siberia between July 5th and 6th 1949. People were taken from their homes in the middle of the night, packed into cattle cars and then simply dumped in Siberia with no waiting support or infrastructure.

PAS MP Valentina Ghețu's parents were among those who were deported that night and she and her brothers were later born in Siberia. MP Ghețu addressed parliament on the occasion saying:

"I come from a multi-ethnic family, my mother is Moldovan and my father is German. My and my family's past was sad and scarred us for life. My mother Lidia, who was 18 years old, and my grandparents from the village of Zabriceni, Ion and Maria Simon, were awakened by the soldiers and deported as enemies of the people. How many hardships, sufferings and torments I and my brothers, parents, grandparents, relatives, neighbors and our whole family went through, a whole lifetime would not be enough for me to tell", …

I have a few questions for those who miss the Soviet regime. Would you like to be deported in carriages with cows? To be taken to a place where no one is waiting for you and forced to cut down trees in -39°C? Does anyone want to be banned from speaking their native language, and have their parents, grandparents executed for working honestly? Or to be summoned to the KGB for wearing a T-shirt with an image of a world-famous artist? I have been through all of this. I was summoned to the KGB just for wearing a T-shirt with an image of Demis Roussos,"…

"I wasn't lucky enough to be born in Moldova, the homeland of my mother and grandparents, but my children were born here. The Republic of Moldova is my homeland and, since I was born, I fight and will fight so that the young and future generations do not go through the ordeals imposed by totalitarian regimes. I want to live in a democratic country where human rights are respected. Dear people of good faith, let's learn from the lessons of history, from the sufferings of my parents and myself, let's unite for a European Moldova"

MP Valentina Ghețu speaking to Speaker Grosu at a small exhibition about the deportations. Photo source multimedia.parlament.md

Parliament observes a moment of silence Photo Source: multimedia.parlament.md

Political Updates

Here’s a roundup of the top political stories of the week:

• The Socialist Party’s Presidential Candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo is backtracking on Igor Dodon’s plan to gather representatives of opposition parties. When Dodon announced the party’s candidate yesterday (Moldova Matters story) he named many leaders of opposition parties and said that the Socialists would be inviting them to a meeting on Thursday to discuss jointly supporting Stoianoglo. The statement backtracking on this plan comes after multiple parties announced they would have nothing to do with such a meeting. Stoianoglo stated that instead bilateral meetings would be conducted in the weeks to come.

• Senior Socialist MP Vlad Batrincea stated in an interview that the party would advocate a boycott of the EU referendum calling it “illegal.” At the same time he indicated that the party would make a formal decision at a meeting of their governing Republican Council this week. Igor Dodon has not definitively stated his or the party’s position on the referendum and Alexandr Stoianoglo has also made no statements on it.

• …meanwhile the Communist Party has flip-flopped on their position stating that they will no longer call for a boycott but support a “no” vote. In his statement party leader Vladimir Voronin called the authorities “arrogant” and stated that because the referendum will be held on the same day as the Presidential elections it “significantly increases the chances of failure of the boycott.” He went on to note that an unsuccessful boycott which does not void the referendum for lack of turnout will result in an inflated vote share for “yes.”

Author’s Note / Analysis: It is becoming clear that the pro-Kremlin / anti-Europa / Kremlin-adjacent parties are unable to decide on an electoral strategy around the referendum. Even if all these parties joined together for a boycott, past voter turnout numbers and polling suggest that it would fail. At the same time, Shor’s parties have clearly indicated that they will support a “no” vote. The Communists deciding to flip-flop now, with no new information to cite for reasoning, points to some confusion and indecision. Further, the Socialists will have a hard time supporting a boycott that has no broad support, but cannot support a “no” vote while also supporting a supposedly pro-European presidential candidate. We will be following updates as parties slowly sort themselves into positions on the referendum.

• The population census has ended on July 7th. As of July 4th 2.4 million people were registered in the census. Preliminary results will be made publicly available by the end of December 2024 will full results by the end of 2026. In the process of the census 10,200 citizens refused to participate but 6000 later changed their minds. So far 50 people have been fined for not participating and around 3,900 have been sent final notices of warning to comply with the count. It is worth noting that the 2014 census counted just over 2.8 million residents.

• The Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) approved the Vetting Commission’s report which failed Judge Anatolie Ţurcanu. Judge Ţurcanu is the first sitting judge to fail vetting and will now be removed from the system. The former judge was the chairman of the criminal panel of the Supreme Court of Justice and was responsible for overseeing Igor Dodon’s illegal financing case known as the "bag” case.

Foreign Affairs Updates

Here’s a roundup of the top foreign affairs stories of the week:

• President Sandu condemned Russia’s missile attack on a children’s hospital in Kyiv saying she was “shaken.” She went on to state that “The Kremlin has turned this war into a war against children. Such lack of humanity and disregard for human life are everything we stand against.” It is worth noting that the attack took place shortly before Igor Dodon and Alexandr Stoianoglo held their press conference yesterday and neither man mentioned it, or the war, in any way.

• Following the meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Bucharest July 3 the final resolution of the meeting included an entire chapter on Transnistria. The gathered members of the assembly, which facilitates inter-parliamentary dialog between the member states of the OSCE, firmly backed a peaceful resolution of the conflict “based on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova within its internationally recognized borders.” The resolution also acknowledged that the 5+2 negotiating format was no longer functional. It called for the release of political prisoners in Transnistria and provided a list of people considered wrongly imprisoned. The group also called out “the strengthening of local repressive mechanisms” in the region. The Transnistrian “Foreign Ministry” responded by calling these statements acts of “hybrid war against Transnistria.”

• Moldova and Transnistria are exploring new bilateral information exchange formates. Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Cristina Gerasimov announced that her bureau, and the Bureau of Reintegration, are exploring new areas of economic integration with Transnistria related to European integration. She explained this saying:

"Transnistria, like any other region of Moldova, will have to implement European legislation if it wants to be part of this process. In recent weeks, we have been discussing the possibility of meeting with representatives of Tiraspol to exchange information on the possibilities of reintegrating the Transnistrian region into our economic and social space,"

"Economic interests should prevail. And we hope to interest Transnistrian producers in new sales markets, because the process of European integration will only benefit everyone,"

• A trilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Romania, Ukraine and Moldova was held in Chisinau last week. At the meeting the 3 countries agreed to closer cooperation with regards to Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics in the region. One very interesting additional detail appeared in the Ukrainian government’s English language readout of the meeting. In the document they note that Ukraine and Moldova discussed a "gas-to-electricity swap" whereby Moldova would generate electricity on its territory using Ukrainian natural gas and trade the electricity back to Ukraine. This caught public attention because Moldova has little ability to generate electricity at all much less export it. Minister of Energy Parlikov was later asked about this idea and stated that the idea was at early states and that "We [Moldova] proposed to install electricity generating capacities in Moldova because they [Ukraine] produce gas, but the generating capacities were destroyed." He went on to state the Moldova could theoretically provide Ukraine with 500 MWh of electricity once equipment is “imported and set up.” It’s unclear what kind of power generation this plan envisions. The idea of Moldova and Ukraine cooperating on power generation may indicate that Ukraine is searching for long term solutions leveraging the invisible air defense of the Moldovan border. At the same time this would only be a partial measure, Ukraine has lost 9000 MWh of generating capability so far in the war.

• Moldovans try and unpack the recent American Presidential Debate. Like much of the world the Moldovan press has written long articles and filmed TV segments trying to make sense of what is going on in the US Presidential Election¹. For many people who don’t natively speak English this is an especially challenging situation to understand. For some years foreign press have struggled to translate Donald Trump’s often meandering remarks and in some cases, the Russian press notably, have often defaulted to translations that try and understand the meaning behind his words rather than a literal translation. This “language laundering” can cause multi-lingual listeners to sometimes be shocked when they actually hear Trump in English. This time, with Biden’s meandering and often incoherent statements, and Trump’s normally long winded and confusing ones, everyone is having trouble. So let’s just have some sympathy for translators as they try and make sense of the American political situation for audiences around the world.

Shor Party Updates

Here’s a roundup of the top Shor and Shor-adjacent stories of the week:

• Lawyers for Bashkan Gutsul attempted a new delaying tactic by requesting that the presiding judge merge her case in illegal party financing with the ongoing case against Marina Tauber. The judge accepted the request under consideration over the protests of prosecutors who noted that while Gutsul’s case was only beginning, Tauber’s case has already progressed quite far with more than 20 witnesses already having testified. The request was forwarded to the judge presiding over Tauber’s case who rejected it. In the meantime, the trial was delayed by another week.

• “Chance” Party leader Alexei Lungu was detained by police and charged with hooliganism for actions taken during a protest outside of the courthouse hearing Gutsul’s case. Police had told protestors that they needed to remain 25 m from the courthouse but Lungu allegedly behaved aggressively and refused to comply.

• The Chance Party may be banned from participating in upcoming elections. The Central Election Committee (CEC) announced that they completed an audit of the party’s activities before last year’s local elections and found various violations. Additionally, Chance did not cooperate with the audit and refused to provide necessary documents. The case is now pending in the Balti court which will consider sanctions against the party.

• Airline FlyOne has announced that they will ban passengers from carrying more than 3000 euros on the flight from Yerevan to Chisianu. They will also introduce additional security checks against Moldovan government lists barring entry for some individuals and will refuse boarding without refund for people attempting to enter the country without permission. Yerevan has become the main transit hub for Moldovans traveling back and forth to Russia since the end of direct flights following the Russian invasion. The company explained that it is taking this action due to passengers who have complained about the long waiting and screening times for entry into Moldova after arrival. Police and border agents have regularly found many people on these flights attempting to smuggle in money following Pobeda (Victory) block events in Moscow.

Economics and Infrastructure News

Here’s a roundup of the top economics and infrastructure stories of the week:

• Competition Council Director Alexei Ghertescu announced fines against 6 gas stations for cartel practices. The Competition Council is Moldova’s top anti-monopoly regulator. The gas stations named were Bemol, Dontario, Lukoil, Petrom, Rompetrol and Tirex Petrol. They have collectively been fined more than 500 million lei after having been alleged to engage in price coordination scheme from March 2019 until January 2021. In March 2021 parliament held hearings on rising fuel prices which led to the resignations of the former Director of the Competition Council and the Director of the National Agency for Energy Regulation leadership. Petrom called the fines “unreasonable” and said they will appeal in court. They also threatened to leave the Moldovan market. Prime Minister Recean praised the action but called on the Competition Council to move faster in investigations saying:

"I expect the Competition Council to defend this position in court and to move on to other equally important areas as soon as possible. Such as, for example, the collection and sale of grain or the sale of fertilizers, or the media market. I think you know better than anyone how concentrated and monopolized the media market was,"

• The Competition Council also announced a new investigation into the National Agency for Public Health (ANSP) and the Ministry of Health. The ANSP licenses business operating within the health sector but also itself acts as a state owned company competing in this sector in areas specifically outlined by the government as permissible. The Competition Council stated that the ANSP is operating outside of this mandate and participating in public tenders and other business functions in competition with private sector companies that they regulate.

• The ANSP announced the results of water pollution testing in some of Moldova’s top lakes and river beach areas. This follows stories from past weeks where Transnistrian authorities banned swimming in the Nistru downstream of Bender due to a spill of sewage into the river. ANSP test results rank water on a scale of 1-5 where score of 1-3 are considered safe for swimming, 4 is considered polluted and 5 is considered “very polluted.” All of Chisinau’s lakes with swimming areas are ranked as level 5 except Valea Morilor (level 4). Nistru beaches in Soroca are ranked at level 3 but beaches in Vadul lui Vodă are ranked at level 4. Notably, Soroca dumps the city sewage into the river just downstream of the town’s beach. Observations of Nistru beaches over the weekend showed that these results have done little to deter swimmers.

• Minister of Infrastructure Andrei Spinu announced that the Chisinau Airport is nearing capacity. The airport handled 1.6 million passengers in the first 6 months of 2023, a 39% increase over the same period in 2023. The Minister said that the increase was due to the operations of more and more airlines and flights and that this trend is likely to continue. He announced that a feasibility study has been conducted on building a new terminal, runway and parking lot and that this would cost between 250 and 300 million euros.

• The government has approved a bill mandating a return to centralized heating in parts of Moldova. The proposed law would require all public buildings to be re-connected to central heating and for new apartment buildings to be mandated to be connected to central rather than “autonomous” heating². New construction will not return to Soviet era central heating construction but will implement new “horizontal” heating. In the Soviet “vertical” configuration hot water pipes would flow upwards from one apartment to the next. This resulted in uneven heating (with some apartments being cold and others forced to leave their windows open all winter) as well as communal prices and “heating seasons” - when the heat would be turned on or off for the whole building. In the horizontal system main trunk piping for hot and cold water will extend through the building and each floor will draw and return water to these pipes. This allows individual temperature control and metering apartment by apartment. Under the new regulations it would be “nearly impossible” for individual apartments to withdraw from central heating with only 2 exceptions outlined: 1) the entire building moves to a self contained renewable heating system or 2) an individual customer proves that their heating system is cheaper than the centralized one - a calculation that will not focus on their billing price but on the heat generation price (which includes profitable side effects such as electrical generation). Energy expert Serghei Tofilat tells Newsmaker that creating European style central heating systems will have multiple benefits including cheaper consumer prices, the ability to incorporate renewable sources of energy in the system and electricity generation. Unsaid is the fact that it will also allow extremely dirty energy in the form of fuel oil to be burned in national emergencies that result in gas shortages. Current customers with autonomous heating systems will not be affected by the legislation propose.

1. It’s not really the place of Moldova Matters to dive into US politics, though I might do an article later in the cycle unpacking what, if any, impacts the election is likely to have on Moldova

2. “Autonomous” heating refers to apartments that utilize an on-demand natural gas burning water heater to provide hot water and to heat radiators. In recent years all new buildings are designed with autonomous heating and residents in Soviet-era buildings were permitted to withdraw their apartments from central heating and install autonomous heating on an individual basis.