Page 19 - bne_newspaper_May_31_2019

Opinion
May 31, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
Another aspect to the failed Austria coalition from the very beginning was the FPÖ's special relations with Russia. After all, the FPÖ has maintained
a party partnership with Russia’s ruling United Rus- sia party since 2016. At times even Western states (including Germany, which is not overly critical of Russia) feared that FPÖ ministers in the interior and security sector could pass on sensitive information from the Western secret service sphere to Russia.
That means the staging of the Ibiza meeting between FPÖ politicians and a fake Russian oligarch borders on a real satire. As a result of this Ibizagate affair the ambitious chancellor’s career is now in ruins and the FPÖ has been totally discredited.
However, the Ibizagate affair can now also have unintended consequences. It supports the prevailing opinion internationally and in certain circles of US politics that some EU states, and Austria in particular, are too close to Russia or can be bought from Russia.
The backlash from Ibizagate is that the USA pushes ahead with another round of sanctioning on Rus- sia. Although Russia had nothing to do with the Ibiza meeting, but that's not the point. It's the political narrative of too much naivety towards Russia and this narrative was certainly promoted by Ibizagate.
In this respect the joy in left-wing circles in Austria and internationally should not be too great. Ibizagate could on the one hand promote a further isolation of Russia and on the other hand bring down a personality that is in itself pro-European and internationally respected, the young (former?) Chancellor Kurz.
It is not yet clear whether he will survive Ibizagate unscathed. In this respect, it is not yet quite clear how much damage the Ibizagate affair will cause overall, for Austria, for Eastern Europe and for the EU. It only remains to be hoped that Ibizagate has harmed the populists beyond Austria. Then
at least something in the pan-European sense would have been achieved.
Moldova’s banking sector turning the corner
Moldova has long been a money-laundering black hole. Then in 2014 they had a shock when more than $1bn was stolen from the bank sector – equivalent to 15% of GDP.
Belatedly the government is now responding. Stakes in three of the country's biggest banks, which together account for about 80% of the sector’s assets, have been sold to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and private investors and the central bank has been given real teeth to enforce regulations.
bne IntelliNews editor-in-chief Ben Aris talks
to special advisor to the president and head
of strategic planning at Moldova-Agroindbank (MAIB) Corneliu Munteanu and asks if Moldova’s banking sector has turned the corner.
Corneliu Munteanu
special advisor to the president of Moldova, head of strategic planning at MAIB
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