Russian trace in Moldova

The publication "after. Media" published material about the largest banking scandal of Moldova and how the Moldavian oligarchy is connected with the Russian special services:

“Ilan Shor was a key character in the largest corruption scandal in the history of Moldova. In 2014, more than one billion euros were withdrawn from the country through the three largest banks of the country. <...> Subsequently, the Moldovan government decided to compensate for this huge hole in the banking sector, equivalent to 12 percent of the GDP of a small country with a population of 2.6 million people. <...>

Although the scandal remained in the past, its consequences are still felt. From his exile in Israel, Ilan Shor continued to pull the threads of Moldovan society, partly due to his close ties with the Russian security forces <...>. According to American intelligence, the Russian special services spent millions in order to gain control of the political establishment in Moldova. Their goal was to bring down the country from the course on integration in the EU and return it to the sphere of influence of Moscow. <...>

A year after the banking scandal, Shor headed the Equintorary populist party, which they immediately began to be called the "Party of Schora." This gave Russian interests a stable platform in the Moldova parliament, where the party received 7 out of 101 places in the 2019 election.

<...> The oligarchs, who almost destroyed Moldova, and then took control of the country's political scene, oddly enough, enjoy the support of a significant part of the population. Using their fabulous states, they captured most of the country's media.

According to Nadin Gogh, an employee of the Independent Journalism Center, Plakhotnyuk controlled about 60 percent of Moldovan news. Ilan Shor also took possession of a large number of television channels that actively manipulate information.

Six of these pro -Russian networks are already closed. This radical measure, however, caused criticism from ordinary Moldovan, who miss daily gears. <...> The report from November 2022 emphasizes that Russian propaganda is still strong in Moldova. Two stations of Ilana Shora, NTV and RTR, which mainly retires Russian content, are considered as the most reliable media 12 and 11 percent of the population, respectively. ”