Weekly Roundup Part 1

April 7, 2023

Author’s Note: Once again we have a very full news week and it’s not possible to cram it all into one roundup coherently. In Part 1 of this Weekly Roundup we will look at recent news in Moldova’s international relations as well as security news. In Part 2 we will cover political and economic news, the continuing problems of the Socialist Party and the fight for Justice Reform. Part 2 will come out this weekend so stay tuned.

*Correction* Spring has Not Sprung

This marks a first for Moldova Matters - leading with a correction. We’re quite sorry but we got it *very* wrong last week when we optimistically took the news that Chisinau and other localities were ending central heating from the winter by noting that “Spring has Sprung.” That turned out to be premature…

Police digging out a school bus in northern Moldova

This week Chisinau is enduring a forecast of daily cold, rain and endless gray as it seems spring has turned its back on the country temporarily. This has led to a situation of quick reversal on central heating with most buildings in the capital and regions maintaining winter heating conditions. The north of the country experienced snowfalls including heavy snow in Iasi Romania which snarled up roads, border crossings and even delayed the Chisinau-Bucharest train 6 hours after it got stuck in the snow.

The premise of our optimistic section was that Moldova got through the cold season and weathered (forgive the pun) the Russian energy blackmail well enough. That remains true, but it seems we still have a bit of space for cold and gloom this year.

While we’re here, the main energy news of the week was that Moldova signed an additional 6 month contract with MoldGres for electricity. The new contract decreased in price by $7 / MWh assuring an affordable supply of electricity to Moldova for the medium term.

Ok… on with the roundup

International Relations

This week President Sandu had an active travel schedule, first speaking at the Summit for Democracy hosted by US President Biden. Speaking at the summit, President Sandu directly called out the hybrid attacks against Moldova by Russia saying:

“The attempts of the Russian Federation to undermine, overthrow the government, and we have evidence. It is clear that Russia is trying to establish a pro-Russian government in Chisinau in order to use Moldova against Ukraine, as is happening, for example, in the case of Belarus,”

She noted the plans announced by the Kremlin to position nuclear weapons in Belarus and said that Moscow has similar plans for Moldova after they establish a pro-Russian government. She noted that the Moldovan people’s elected government are preventing the use of the country as a staging ground against Ukraine but that the country needs additional support.

Photo accessed via Newsmaker

Following this trip, President Sandu traveled to Ukraine to attend the Bucha Summit commemorating the one year anniversary of the liberation of Bucha and discovery of the many atrocities committed by the Russian army there. Speaking at the event she forcefully voiced support for Ukrainian victory:

“Moldova supports our friends and neighbors. […] Mr. President, we believe in Ukraine's victory in this battle that you are waging for your existence, for the full restoration of the territorial integrity of your state. We demand justice. There can be no peace without justice. Glory to Ukraine!"

She further spoke of Moldova’s support for an international tribunal to be set up to investigate and prosecute war crimes. During her trip she also participated in a bilateral meeting with President Zelenskyy where the 2 leaders discussed the security situation and sanctions against Russia.

EU Support Against Misinformation

This week we got new information about the upcoming EU civilian “resilience” mission being sent to assist Moldova. The mission is being set up on a fast track mechanism for an initial 2 year mandate to support Moldova by:

"enhancing the resilience of Moldova's security sector in the area of crisis management as well as enhancing resilience to hybrid threats, including cybersecurity, and countering foreign information manipulation and interference"

The memo outlining the mission creation particularly warned that "Moldova's hosting of the European Political Community summit on 1 June 2023 could result in heightened hybrid and information manipulation threats,"

In parallel to this new mission, Euronews has announced that it will create “Euronews Republica Moldova” which will be a TV channel launched in Moldova this fall with local reporters, journalists and an independent local studio.

It seems that President Sandu and Prime Minister Recean’s consistent messaging about hybrid threats to Moldova is beginning to result in concrete support measures from the EU in countering Russian disinformation.

“Hybrid War” and Moldovan Security

This week Parliament extended the state of emergency for another 60 days noting the continued direct and hybrid threats caused by the war. One power of the government under this emergency regime is the ability to strengthen border security and deny entry based on security concerns. This week border police detained and then deported a Russian citizen that they identified as a former Russian soldier who participated in the Battle of Mariupol. He gave misleading statements to border agents while attempting to enter the country and travel to Tiraspol.

Also this week, two people traveling from Tel Aviv were stopped at the airport after they attempted to pass customs claiming they had nothing to declare. A total of $100,000 in cash was found on them and confiscated. Law enforcement has not announced who they were or why they had this money but it is possibly related to the ongoing attempts by the Shor Party to move money into the country to fund the protest movement (possibly not - this is entirely speculative). Prosecutors continue to track Shor Party money and crack down on illegal party financing.

Apparently they got some unexpected help when a man robbed 2 women acting as couriers for the Shor Party. He stole 487,450 lei from them and injured a bystander who tried to intervene by striking him with a crowbar. The robber is now in court facing 12 years in prison for attempting to steal the stolen money Shor was distributing in the hopes of overthrowing the government. That’s one strange news story.

Parliament took action this week to attempt to crack down on mechanisms of moving this money. Currency exchanges will now have to record the amount and ID information for anyone changing more than 10,000 lei (~$550). Previously the threshold for presenting an ID was 200,000 lei. The new law is designed to crack down on illegal party financing, money laundering and the black economy. It’s worth noting that in neighboring countries such as Romania an ID needs to be shown to change any amount no matter how small. The legislation also takes aim at cryptocurrencies, outlawing exchanges in Moldova and only allowing 50,000 lei / month to be legally changed from crypto into hard currency via Moldovan banks.

Parliament took further action to strengthen defenses against hybrid attacks when they passed bills strengthening the counterintelligence capabilities of Moldova’s intelligence agency SIS in the first reading. Parts of these bills were passed over the objections of the Venice Commission, though MPs say there is time for amendments before the second reading is brought to a vote. Opposition parties opposed the bill specifically identifying powers that allow SIS wiretapping and surveillance capabilities in the sphere of national security without an open criminal case.

Across the board, we see the Moldovan authorities approach security questions in 2023 much more directly than in 2022 with a flurry of legislation, press conferences and direct messaging about the threat Russia poses to the country. This is true in the hybrid war context as well as in traditional security.

Moldovan Army Exercises Intensify

The Moldovan Army has continued to publicly announce their schedule of military readiness exercises. According to the army these are yearly pre-planned exercises that they are being extra transparent about in order to assuage public worries over military equipment moving around the country given the regional security situation.

Some exercises are clearly quite normal. A Moldovan army artillery platoon and elements of the Stefan Cel Mare motorized rifle brigade will be in Romania this week to participate in the yearly Fire-Shield 2023 exercises with the Romanian army. These exercises have been held annually since 2015. Additionally, spring conscription has started where around 1,500 people will be brought into the army from April - July. Moldovan conscripts serve for 1 year and there are 2 conscription periods with the next one being in October - January.

What is less standard is the calling up of reserves for “refresher” trainings this spring. Reservists and regular army will both engage in live fire exercises with the goal of bringing the national reserves up to a “high level of readiness.” The Ministry of Defense has announced that reservists called up for exercises face steep fines if they do not show up for their muster dates.

Moldova’s reserve system has long suffered under both apathy and corruption. Young men who attend college are exempt from the mandatory year of military service and often attend a few weekends of trainings and are appointed as NCOs in the reserves. Moldova has not considered readiness of the reserves to be a high priority in the past and many people consider the system a bit of a Soviet relic. It seems that the army is determined to change this and is investing in actual force readiness in the reserves.

Author’s Note: Before moving to Moldova I was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Kazakhstan. I’ll never forget a day where I showed up to teach my 5th grade class, only to find the whole class briskly field stripping and reassembling kaleshnikovs when I walked in. Moldova has long since embraced the peace dividend and gotten rid of Soviet era “readiness” of the sort that asked 5th graders to excel (and wow were they good) at small arms maintenance.

In support of Moldova’s increasing defense needs, Romania announced this week $750,000 in defense support (in addition to $800,000 for Ukraine).

NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană gave an interview this week about support for Moldova where he said:

"We are willing to go as far as the Republic of Moldova is willing to go in the relationship with us"

The Deputy Secretary General noted the threat to Moldova from the Russian Federation and talked about deepening security cooperation with Moldova in the context of the country’s neutrality. It is unclear if “as far as they are willing to go” was meant as an endorsement of Moldovan membership in NATO should the country chose it… but the point is moot as a majority of the population continues to support constitutional neutrality.

“Cooperation vs membership” may be a distinction without a difference for Russian however, with the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev suggesting this week that NATO was going to use Moldova as a “testing ground” for biological weapons saying:

“Not only Ukraine has become a testing ground for biological weapons. The United States and other former republics of the USSR, such as Georgia, Moldova, as well as several SCO member states are in sight,

So while hybrid threats are the acute danger in Moldova, it is clear that the Ministry of Defense, international partners, and Russia, all continue to engage in hypotheticals around Moldovan security - both internal and external.