Moldova anti-govt protesters return amid energy crisis

CHISINAU

Thousands of anti-government protesters returned to the streets of Moldova’s capital on Nov. 13 to express their dismay over alleged government failings amid an acute winter energy crisis and skyrocketing inflation.

The protesters converged in the capital, Chisinau, and chanted slogans as they marched toward the Constitutional
Court.

They called for an early election and the resignation of Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu.

Moldova, a former Soviet republic sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine with 2.6 million people, has taken a distinctly Western-oriented path over the last year.

But in the past two months, a series of protests initiated by the populist Shor Party have rocked the country.

The Shor Party’s leader, Ilan Shor, is a Moldovan oligarch currently in exile in Israel. He is implicated in a $1 billion bank theft and was recently named on a U.S. State Department sanctions list as working for Russian interests.

Last week, Moldova’s government filed a request to the country’s Constitutional Court to declare the Shor
Party illegal.

Moldova’s anti-corruption prosecutors’ office is also investigating the financing of the protests, which prosecutors say involves at least some Russian money.

The protests have hit Molodva’s government as it grapples with a serious winter energy crisis and rapidly rising inflation. Russia, whom Moldova relies on entirely for its natural gas, recently halved its supply to Moldova, Europe’s poorest nation.