Page 48 - bne magazine February 2024_20240206

48 I Southeast Europe bne February 2024
By October 2023, Energy Minister Victor Parlicov was able to confidently declare that most of Moldova (with the exception of Transnistria) no longer needs to buy gas from Gazprom. By that time, Moldova’s gas consumption had dropped to under half the volume consumed two years earlier.
“We are entering this winter much more confident and better prepared,” said Ursu. “We managed to get through the challenges and provocations.”
Destabilisation attempt
The gas crisis didn’t only have an economic impact, it also had a political one, making the cut to gas exports doubly useful to Russia, panelists
said. The hike in energy prices, and consequent squeeze on the incomes
of one of the poorest populations in Europe, sparked a series of protests.
The protests that started in autumn 2022 were backed by the Shor Party, the vehicle of fugitive politician and businessman Ilan Shor, who has been convicted in connection with the $1bn bank frauds. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Shor is also suspected of being backed by Moscow.
In March this year, Moldova’s
police announced they prevented a destabilisation plot carried out by Russian agents in connection to the protests. They claimed Russian special services were using the protests in an attempt to overthrow the pro-EU government.
“People were struggling to pay their bills. We saw public protests – most probably genuine because people were really struggling – but Russia planned to use the protests, and infiltrate some violent elements, well-trained abroad, that would provoke violence ... That Russian plan failed,” said Ursu, "as Moldova’s Western partners stepped in to help the country secure gas supplies and compensate its most vulnerable consumers.”
Chisinau responded by controversially banning the Shor Party, which was followed up by a ban on its successor the Chance Party shortly before the local
www.bne.eu
elections. Sandu and her party have also been criticised for some of the actions taken to clean up the judiciary, including through the removal of former head prosecutor Alexandr Stoianoglo, which was recently ruled unconstitutional.
Popsoi addressed this controversy during the panel. “When it comes to Russia exploiting our vulnerability, they are now moving towards exploiting
the democratic process against our democratic future. They are trying
to hijack democratic elections in
their favour, and that’s why we had to take drastic measures to defend our democracy by the Constitutional Court declaring unconstitutional the party of Shor, the oligarch that is a fugitive from Moldovan justice,” he said.
“It doesn’t give me any pleasure to be announcing that we had to
This was clearly highlighted in the recent local elections, where several panelists said there had been explicit vote-buying in the autonomous Gagauzia region – where a pro-Russian bashkan (governor) was elected – and elsewhere in the country. “There is
no way any other political force in Moldova can compete against cash,” said Popsoi. “We can talk of reforms but if somebody offers some citizen €100 in cash, unfortunately nine times out of 10 people will take the money.”
This was backed up by a report from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR), which said: “Credible, persistent and widespread allegations of the use of illegal funds
for vote buying were raised before and during the campaign, attributed to Mr Şor [Shor], who also publicly announced funding local infrastructural projects
“It doesn’t give me any pleasure to be announcing that we had to preclude certain political parties from participating in the democratic process when these political parties [were] actively engaging in corrupting citizens”
preclude certain political parties from participating in the democratic process when these political parties [were] actively engaging in corrupting citizens.”
Having already banned Russian TV news channels, in October Chisinau also moved to block access to Russian news sites it said published "online content used in the war of information against the Republic of Moldova”, including Interfax, Tass and Russia Today.
The new front
Chisinau has thus taken on Russia in the energy and media spheres. Transnistria – once seen as Russia’s Trojan horse within Moldova – no longer poises such a threat as it did previously.
So where does that leave Russia’s hybrid war on Moldova? What’s left, participants in the USIP panel said, is politics.
and pension supplements from his private funds. In general, the influx
of illicit and foreign funds and the monetary incentives used to influence voters’ choice distorted the campaign.”
The PAS ended the election in the lead across the country, with 291 mayors and around a third of elected county and municipal councillors, but did not gain control of any of the major cities including the capital Chisinau. This was most likely a combination of vote-buying and the struggles of Sandu and the PAS to carry out their reform agenda and convince the population they are steering the country in the right direction.
It indicates that the reformers within the PAS will have a tough fight on their hands as Moldova approaches the
next presidential and parliamentary elections.