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Moldova Weekly News Digest, 26 February 2017

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– On February 21st, Moldova’s President Igor Dodon, Parliament speaker Andrian Candu and Prime-Minister Pavel Filip met at the Presidential residency to discuss relevant issues in a trilateral format.

The three officials again totally disagreed on issues of social-economic importance like the payment of the state obligations to the National Bank, the pension system reform and the opening of the NATO liaison office. To sum it up, Dodon wanted to show his teeth with his apparently strong opposition against almost everything, while Candu and Filip seemed to fail convincing the continuation of the European agenda and reforms.

– The President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, rejected three candidate Ambassadors and approved six out of nine proposed by PM Pavel Filip.

The rejected candidates are:

  • Vladimir Ciobanu, candidate Ambassador in Belarus (former Secretary General of the Democratic Party);
  • Valeria Șeican, candidate Ambassador in Austria (current head of the Opera and Ballet Theater of Moldova);
  • Igor Klipii, candidate Ambassador in the United Kingdom (former Vice-President of the Democratic Party).

“In order to avoid the blocking of the external diplomatic activity of the Republic of Moldova, taking in account the constitutional competences in what regards the subject of appointing withdrawing the Ambassadors, I propose to have additional consultations”, reads the letter signed by Dodon for Filip. Read here who are the newly appointed Ambassadors.

– On February 24th, the President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, had a meeting with the International Monetary Fund mission led by Ben Kelmanson.

According to the press-release of the Presidency, Dodon and the IMF mission had different opinions on some conditions of the Memorandum signed between Moldova and the IMF signed in November 2016 and its effect on Moldova’s population. The President opted for cooperation, but only if the cooperation is in the interest of the Republic of Moldova and its citizens.

Dodon reportedly told IMF that he does not agree with the points regarding the reform of the pension system, tariffs’ increase and limiting the the agricultural subsidies. Moreover, he reiterated that he is categorically against the law on the payment of “one billion”, resulted from the grand banking theft from 2014. Probably for the first time, President Dodon specified to IMF that we would block the upcoming amnesty law, described as “capital liberalization and fiscal stimulation law”.

– On February 22nd, the Moldovan President Igor Dodon announced about the intention to participate at a Moldo-Russian Economic Forum in the second half of March 2017. The Forum would be organized by the Association of Entrepreneurs of Russia “Delovaya Rossyia”.

According to Dodon, the Association gathers entrepreneurs from 77 regions of the Russian Federation, 30 committees and 86 branches in different economic spheres.

– On February 20th, the Moldovan President Igor Dodon announced that he would organize a scientific conference in Chișinău on the topic “The statehood of Moldova: historical continuity and development perspectives”. The conference will reportedly take place during 24-25 March and will gather around 100 experts from 11 states.

According to Dodon, the topics to be discussed are: historical approach towards the continuity of the Moldovan state, social-economic development of Moldova in different historical periods, the theory of state genesis, the law from the perspectives of the countries represented at the conference and others.

Dodon is known for his policy of over-promoting Moldovan identity and statehood in contrast to the Romanian identity of most of Moldovans.

– On February 23rd, the Prime-Minister of Moldova, Pavel Filip, had a phone conversation with the Secretary General of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg.

The two officials reportedly discussed about the measures needed to open the NATO Liaison Office in Chișinău, but also the accreditation procedures for the staff. Secretary Stoltenberg told Filip that in March the accreditation of the head of mission and staff will be conducted, while the official opening will be held in June 2017.

Filip invited the NATO Secretary to have a visit to Moldova.

– Transnistria will celebrate 2 March as Day of Rejecting the Aggression from Moldova, 12 June- Day of Russia

On February 18th, the leader of the breakaway Transnistria, Vadim Krasnoselsky, signed the decree on introducing two important holidays/commemoration days.

Thus, March 2nd will be marked as a the “Day of the beginning of the large-scale aggression of Moldova against the Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic”, while June 12th will be celebrated as Day of Russia.

The date of March 2nd 1992 is the official beginning of the armed conflict between the constitutional authorities of the Republic of Moldova and the separatist militias, backed up by former 14th Army of Soviet Union, from the left bank of Nistru. On that day, shootings started around Cocieri village.

– On February 22nd, the Government of Moldova refused to approve the law initiative of some deputies to open a number of voting centers outside the country proportionally to the specific number of Moldovans living in those countries for several reasons.

According to the negative note signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Daniela Morari, a proportional number of voting centers is difficult to calculate because the number of Moldovan voters is difficult to determine in a specific country. The Minister welcomes the initiative, but thinks that it would not solve the problem of guaranteeing the voting right to the Moldovan citizens.

The number of voting centers outside Moldova will still be decided by the Central Electoral Commission together with the Foreign Ministry by taking in account the preliminary registration of voters and the turnout at the previous elections.

– On February 22nd, deputy Chiril Lucinschi declared that he withdraws from the Parliament of Moldova and the Liberal-Democratic Party. The statement was made by Lucinschi at the briefing together with the Liberal-Democratic caucus leader Tudor Deliu.

Moreover, Lucinschi added that he would change the structure the TV channel managed by him, his son Petru and daughter Alexandra, TV7, by giving 75% of the shares to a new association of journalists. The plan of restructuring TV7 was, according to him, agreed at the meeting of the European Endowment for Democracy, on February 8th. He says that, despite keeping 25% of the shares, he does not want to damage the image of the TV channel.

Chiril Lucinschi, son of the second President of the independent Moldova Petru Lucinschi, has been a Liberal-Democrat deputy since December 2010. Liberal-Democrat Alexandru Barbăroșie would get the seat of Lucinschi in the Moldovan Parliament.

– Another Liberal-Democrat, Simion Grișciuc announced, three days later, about his withdrawal from the Liberal-Democratic Party (PLDM) caucus of the Parliament of Moldova. Grișciuc was criticized by his former party fellows for being opportunistic and seeking to join the Democratic caucus.

– Supreme Court ruled that Moldova ex-PM Vlad Filat stays in prison, lawyers count on the ECHR.

On February 22nd, a team of judges from the Supreme Court of Justice of Moldova rejected the request to reexamine the case of the ex Prime-Minister Vlad Filat. The judges think the “requests are obviously unfounded”.

Because Supreme Court’s decision is immune to any challenging, the lawyers declared they would fill a complaint in the name of Filat to the European Court of Human Rights. They describe the decision of the Supreme Court to be illegal and inequitable.

– On February 20th, journalist and editor Val Butnaru announced on his Facebook page that the TV channel Jurnal TV will come back with a new program on March 5th.

Jurnal TV interrupted its normal broadcasting on January 16th, after the media outlet had a conflict with the owner of its office. The owner of the TV channel building, declared that it decided to end the rent contract after several attempts to recover the debt for the rent for previous months. Just recently, the leader of the Platform “Dignity and Truth” Party, Andrei Năstase, declared about the coming back of Jurnal TV, but with different funding persons and self-financing.

– Recently, Moldova’s Registry of unique tariffs for medical services was modified, thus increasing the prices, sometimes by two, three or even five times. The event made the Ombudsman of Moldova, Mihail Cotorobai, to start an investigation on the justification of the increased prices, taking in account the types of services and the price/income ratio.

On February 23rd, the Party of Socialists organized a protest against the price changes in front of the building of Healthcare Ministry. On February 24th, the Socialist deputies submitted a censure motion against the Minister of Healthcare, Ruxanda Glavan. The no-confidence voting would be cast on March 2nd.

– On February 24th, the Parliament of Moldova approved the simplification of offering residence status to investors in the IT domain. The draft law, authored by speaker Andrian Candu and voted in the first lecture, would allow the IT investors and specialists to get an easier residence without getting a residence permit in Moldova.

The law would allow the heads of IT firms to stay for up to 6 months out of 12, IT investors- 3 months, IT specialists- 6 months. The special status will be offered after an evaluation of a special commission.

– On February 22nd, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a new project “High Value Agriculture in Moldova” with a total value of 21 million US dollars.

The 5 years project assist the agricultural producers in selling and exports high value products, adopting advanced producing and processing technologies and improving the services offered by agricultural associations.

– Meaning of “off the beaten path”: Only 15,6 thousand official tourists visited Moldova in 2016.

On February 21st, the National Bureau of Statistics of Moldova published new data regarding tourism in Moldova in 2016.

The data show that the tourism agencies of Moldova offered services to 234,2 thousand tourists in 2016, 3,4% less than in 2015. Despite a 6,6% decrease in the emitting tourism, there was an increase in internal tourism- 10,8% (41,3 thousand people), and the receiving tourism- 1%.

15668 (1% more than in 2015) official foreign citizens visited Moldova in 2016 as official tourists for a total 46920 days (5,5% more than in 2015), mostly for vacations (73,1%) and business affairs (19,5%). In terms of nationality, most of the tourists were from Romania (22,7%), the Russian Federation (11,9%), Germany (10,6%), Ukraine (10,0%), the United States of America (4,9%), Poland (3,7%), Israel (3,5%), Italy (3,0%), Turkey (2,9%), Japan (2,8%), the United Kingdom (2,4%), the Netherlands (2,3%), France (1,9%),  Denmark (1,6%) and Bulgaria (1,4%).

– SunStroke Project will represent the Republic of Moldova at the 62nd Eurovision Song Contest (2017) in Kyiv, Ukraine. The guys from SunStroke Project will sing “Hey Mamma” song about, mothers-in-law.

“Hey, Mamma” was chosen the best by the audience and the national jury at the final national contest on February 25th.

SunStroke Project represented Moldova in 2010 with “Run Away” song, getting on the 10th place in the final stage and becoming famous with its “Epic Sax Guy”.

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#WorldForUkraine – a map that shows the magnitude of the world’s actions against Russian aggression

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The international community and volunteers from all over te world have launched #WorldForUkraine as a platform that shows the magnitude of the world’s actions against the Russian aggression. In a digital world – it is an interactive map of public support of Ukrainians under the hashtag #WorldForUkraine – rallies, flash mobs, protests around the world. In the physical dimension – it is your opportunity to take to the streets and declare: “No to Putin’s aggression, no to war.”

„Today, along with the political and military support, emotional connection with the civilized world and truthful information are extremely important for Ukraine. The power to do it is in your hands. Join the #WorldForUkraine project and contribute to the victorious battle against the bloodshed inflicted on Ukraine by the aggression of the Russian Federation”, says the „about the project” section of the platform.

Go to the streets — Tell people — Connect and Unite — Become POWERFUL

Volunteers have launched #WorldForUkraine as a platform that shows the magnitude of the world’s actions against Russian aggression. In digital world – it is an INTERACTIVE MAP of public support of Ukrainians worldforukraine.net under the hashtag #WorldForUkraine – rallies, flash mobs, protests around the world. In the physical dimension – it is your opportunity to take to the streets and declare: “No to Putin’s aggression, no to war.” There you may find information about past and future rallies in your city in support of Ukraine. This is a permanent platform for Ukrainian diaspora and people all over the world concerned about the situation in Ukraine.

So here’s a couple of things you could do yourself to help:

* if there is a political rally in your city, then participate in it and write about it on social media with geolocation and the hashtag #WorldForUkraine

* if there are no rallies nearby, organize one in support of Ukraine yourself, write about it on social media with geolocation adding the hashtag #WorldForUkraine

The map will add information about gathering by #WorldForUkraine AUTOMATICALLY

Your voice now stronger THAN ever

All rallies are already here: https://worldforukraine.net

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How is Moldova managing the big influx of Ukrainian refugees? The authorities’ plan, explained 

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From 24th to 28th of February, 71 359 Ukrainian citizens entered the territory of Republic of Moldova. 33 173 of them left the country. As of this moment, there are 38 186 Ukrainian citizens in Moldova, who have arrived over the past 100 hours. 

The Moldovan people and authorities have organized themselves quickly from the first day of war between Russia and Ukraine. However, in the event of a prolonged armed conflict and a continuous influx of Ukrainian refugees, the efforts and donations need to be efficiently managed. Thus, we inquired about Moldova’s long-term plan and the state’s capacity to receive, host, and treat a bigger number of refugees. 

On February 26th, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Moldova approved the Regulation of organization and functioning of the temporary Placement Center for refugees and the staffing and expenditure rules. According to the Regulation, the Centers will have the capacity of temporary hosting and feeding at least 20 persons, for a maximum of 3 months, with the possibility of extending this period. The Centers will also offer legal, social, psychological, and primary medical consultations to the refugees. The Center’s activity will be financed from budget allocations, under Article 19 of Provision no. 1 of the Exceptional Situations Commission from February 24th, 2022, and from other sources of funding that do not contravene applicable law.

The Ministry of Inner Affairs and the Government of Moldova facilitated the organization of the volunteers’ group “Moldova for Peace”.  Its purpose is to receive, offer assistance and accommodation to the Ukrainian refugees. The group is still working on creating a structure, registering and contacting volunteers, etc. It does not activate under a legal umbrella. 

Lilia Nenescu, one of the “Moldova for Peace” volunteers, said that the group consists of over 20 people. Other 1700 registered to volunteer by filling in this form, which is still available. The group consists of several departments: 

The volunteers’ department. Its members act as fixers: they’re responsible for connecting the people in need of assistance with the appropriate department. Some of the volunteers are located in the customs points. “The Ministry of Inner Affairs sends us every day the list of the customs points where our assistance is needed, and we mobilize the volunteers”, says Lilia Nenescu. 

The Goods Department manages all the goods donated by the Moldavian citizens. The donations are separated into categories: non-perishable foods and non-food supplies. The volunteers of this department sort the goods into packages to be distributed. 

The Government intends to collect all the donations in four locations. The National Agency for Food Safety and the National Agency for Public Health will ensure mechanisms to confirm that all the deposited goods comply with safety and quality regulations. 

The Service Department operates in 4 directions and needs the volunteer involvement of specialists in psychology, legal assistance (the majority of the refugees only have Ukrainian ID and birth certificates of their children); medical assistance; translation (a part of the refugees are not Ukrainian citizens). 

According to Elena Mudrîi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, so far there is no data about the number of  Covid-19 positive refugees. She only mentioned two cases that needed outpatient medical assistance: a pregnant woman and the mother of a 4-day-old child. 

The Accommodation Department. The volunteers are waiting for the centralized and updated information from the Ministry of Labor about the institutions offering accommodation, besides the houses offered by individuals. 

The Transport Department consists of drivers organized in groups. They receive notifications about the number of people who need transportation from the customs points to the asylum centers for refugees.

The municipal authorities of Chișinău announced that the Ukrainian children refugees from the capital city will be enrolled in educational institutions. The authorities also intend to create Day-Care Centers for children, where they will be engaged in educational activities and will receive psychological assistance. Besides, the refugees from the municipal temporary accommodation centers receive individual and group counseling. 

In addition to this effort, a group of volunteers consisting of Ana Gurău, Ana Popapa, and Andrei Lutenco developed, with the help of Cristian Coșneanu, the UArefugees platform, synchronized with the responses from this form. On the first day, 943 people offered their help using the form, and 110 people asked for help. According to Anna Gurău, the volunteers communicate with the Government in order to update the platform with the missing data. 

Translation from Romanian by Natalia Graur

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FC Sheriff Tiraspol victory: can national pride go hand in hand with political separatism?

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A new football club has earned a leading place in the UEFA Champions League groups and starred in the headlines of worldwide football news yesterday. The Football Club Sheriff Tiraspol claimed a win with the score 2-1 against Real Madrid on the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. That made Sheriff Tiraspol the leader in Group D of the Champions League, including the football club in the groups of the most important European interclub competition for the first time ever.

International media outlets called it a miracle, a shock and a historic event, while strongly emphasizing the origin of the team and the existing political conflict between the two banks of the Dniester. “Football club from a pro-Russian separatist enclave in Moldova pulls off one of the greatest upsets in Champions League history,” claimed the news portals. “Sheriff crushed Real!” they said.

Moldovans made a big fuss out of it on social media, splitting into two groups: those who praised the team and the Republic of Moldova for making history and those who declared that the football club and their merits belong to Transnistria – a problematic breakaway region that claims to be a separate country.

Both groups are right and not right at the same time, as there is a bunch of ethical, political, social and practical matters that need to be considered.

Is it Moldova?

First of all, every Moldovan either from the right or left bank of Dniester (Transnistria) is free to identify himself with this achievement or not to do so, said Vitalie Spranceana, a sociologist, blogger, journalist and urban activist. According to him, boycotting the football club for being a separatist team is wrong.

At the same time, “it’s an illusion to think that territory matters when it comes to football clubs,” Spranceana claimed. “Big teams, the ones included in the Champions League, have long lost their connection both with the countries in which they operate, and with the cities in which they appeared and to which they linked their history. […] In the age of globalized commercial football, teams, including the so-called local ones, are nothing more than global traveling commercial circuses, incidentally linked to cities, but more closely linked to all sorts of dirty, semi-dirty and cleaner cash flows.”

What is more important in this case is the consistency, not so much of citizens, as of politicians from the government who have “no right to celebrate the success of separatism,” as they represent “the national interests, not the personal or collective pleasures of certain segments of the population,” believes the political expert Dionis Cenusa. The victory of FC Sheriff encourages Transnistrian separatism, which receives validation now, he also stated.

“I don’t know how it happens that the “proud Moldovans who chose democracy”, in their enthusiasm for Sheriff Tiraspol’s victory over Real Madrid, forget the need for total and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria!” declared the journalist Vitalie Ciobanu.

Nowadays, FC Sheriff Tiraspol has no other choice than to represent Moldova internationally. For many years, the team used the Moldovan Football Federation in order to be able to participate in championships, including international ones. That is because the region remains unrecognised by the international community. However, the club’s victory is presented as that of Transnistria within the region, without any reference to the Republic of Moldova, its separatist character being applied in this case especially.

Is it a victory?

In fact, FC Sheriff Tiraspol joining the Champions League is a huge image breakthrough for the Transnistrian region, as the journalist Madalin Necsutu claimed. It is the success of the Tiraspol Club oligarchic patrons. From the practical point of view, FC Sheriff Tiraspol is a sports entity that serves its own interests and the interests of its owners, being dependent on the money invested by Tiraspol (but not only) oligarchs.

Here comes the real dilemma: the Transnistrian team, which is generously funded by money received from corruption schemes and money laundering, is waging an unequal fight with the rest of the Moldovan football clubs, the journalist also declared. The Tiraspol team is about to raise 15.6 million euro for reaching the Champions League groups and the amounts increase depending on their future performance. According to Necsutu, these money will go directly on the account of the club, not to the Moldovan Football Federation, creating an even bigger gab between FC Sheriff and other football clubs from Moldova who have much more modest financial possibilities.

“I do not see anything useful for Moldovan football, not a single Moldovan player is part of FC Sheriff Tiraspol. I do not see anything beneficial for the Moldovan Football Federation or any national team.”

Is it only about football?

FC Sheriff Tiraspol, with a total estimated value of 12.8 million euros, is controlled by Victor Gusan and Ilya Kazmala, being part of Sheriff Holding – a company that controls the trade of wholesale, retail food, fuels and medicine by having monopolies on these markets in Transnistria. The holding carries out car trading activities, but also operates in the field of construction and real estate. Gusan’s people also hold all of the main leadership offices in the breakaway region, from Parliament to the Prime Minister’s seat or the Presidency.

The football club is supported by a holding alleged of smuggling, corruption, money laundering and organised crime. Moldovan media outlets published investigations about the signals regarding the Sheriff’s holding involvement in the vote mobilization and remuneration of citizens on the left bank of the Dniester who participated in the snap parliamentary elections this summer and who were eager to vote for the pro-Russian socialist-communist bloc.

Considering the above, there is a great probability that the Republic of Moldova will still be represented by a football club that is not identified as being Moldovan, being funded from obscure money, growing in power and promoting the Transnistrian conflict in the future as well.

Photo: unknown

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