{"id":422745,"date":"2015-05-26T14:47:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T11:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moldova.org\/?p=422745"},"modified":"2015-05-26T14:47:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T11:47:16","slug":"the-washington-times-the-kremlin-stole-moldovas-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/the-washington-times-the-kremlin-stole-moldovas-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Times: Kremlin stole Moldova’s millions"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

Peter Hannaford, in his article for the Washington Times<\/a>, believes that the money from Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala, Unibank and the monetary reserves of Moldova has been stolen by Kremlin.<\/p>\n

Hannaford writes that the theft could be possible only with the participation of Russian regime, taking in count that such an amount of money was washed through some banks from Russia.<\/p>\n

One much-heard rumor is that at least some of the money was transferred to Russian banks. That and other questions remain unanswered. In February, Russian hackers stole money from banks in several other countries. Were these a dress rehearsal for a large-scale assault on Moldova\u2019s banks?<\/p>\n

Another theory is that this may have been part of Vladimir Putin\u2019s plan to solidify the Russian sphere of influence throughout Eurasia.<\/p>\n

While the bank theft may be a conspiracy of insiders to enrich themselves and allies, the instability that flowed from it certainly strengthens Moscow\u2019s hand in its effort to get ever more friendly officials elected in Moldova.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As proof, Hannaford states the opinion of Vadim Khramov, a banking analyst:<\/p>\n

Vadim Khramov, an analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, verified in an interview with EU\u00a0Reporter that it would take months or even years to convert Moldovan currency into hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n

Moldovan law limits transactions to $150,000 at a time. If there were several such transactions, they would attract the central bank\u2019s attention. Mr. Khramov also said that the magnitude of the total transactions would cause the national currency to slump and it has, by 20 percent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story of the “lost” one billion from the Moldovan banks can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>Peter Hannaford, in his article for the Washington Times, believes that the money from Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala, Unibank and the monetary reserves of Moldova has been stolen by Kremlin. Hannaford writes that the theft could be possible only with the participation of Russian regime, taking in count that such an amount of money […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":422724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-422745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-politics"],"content_social_share":"Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

Peter Hannaford, in his article for the Washington Times<\/a>, believes that the money from Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala, Unibank and the monetary reserves of Moldova has been stolen by Kremlin.<\/p>\n

Hannaford writes that the theft could be possible only with the participation of Russian regime, taking in count that such an amount of money was washed through some banks from Russia.<\/p>\n

One much-heard rumor is that at least some of the money was transferred to Russian banks. That and other questions remain unanswered. In February, Russian hackers stole money from banks in several other countries. Were these a dress rehearsal for a large-scale assault on Moldova\u2019s banks?<\/p>\n

Another theory is that this may have been part of Vladimir Putin\u2019s plan to solidify the Russian sphere of influence throughout Eurasia.<\/p>\n

While the bank theft may be a conspiracy of insiders to enrich themselves and allies, the instability that flowed from it certainly strengthens Moscow\u2019s hand in its effort to get ever more friendly officials elected in Moldova.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As proof, Hannaford states the opinion of Vadim Khramov, a banking analyst:<\/p>\n

Vadim Khramov, an analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, verified in an interview with EU\u00a0Reporter that it would take months or even years to convert Moldovan currency into hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n

Moldovan law limits transactions to $150,000 at a time. If there were several such transactions, they would attract the central bank\u2019s attention. Mr. Khramov also said that the magnitude of the total transactions would cause the national currency to slump and it has, by 20 percent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story of the “lost” one billion from the Moldovan banks can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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