After the dismissal of the Government led by Maia Sandu (co-leader of the ACUM Bloc), Russia promises to give money to Moldova, announced Prime Minister Ion Chicu, after his first visit to Moscow. 

According to him, Russia offered to grant Moldova a loan of $500 million for investment projects. The press asked the prime minister what specific projects Russia wants to finance in Moldova, since when and on what lending conditions, but he avoided giving a clear answer. 

“We’re going to negotiate,” Chicu replied.

To find out if Russia will give this $500 million loan to Moldova and under what lending conditions would it offer the money ZDG asks the experts. 

Alexandra Can, The Employers Association from Light Industry APIUS

It’s important what projects Russia wants to invest in. If this money is for propaganda, support of Russian televisions, federalization, or the 2020 elections, then I have nothing to say except what everyone already knows. 

Russia has never wanted Moldova to develop, either with or without its participation. Russia invested in Moldova only where there were political interests: in Transnistrian separatism, in Budjak (historical region along the Black Sea between the Danube and Nistru Rivers). 

It also invested in economic projects, but again, in the breakaway Transnistrian region, in Comrat (UTA Gagauzia), in other areas of strategic interest for it. 

Russia will not give money for us to solve our problems, but only to promote its interests. It’s not a problem that Mr. Chicu went to Moscow and not elsewhere. The problem is that after the visit is over, there are unanswered questions.

Ion Tăbârţă, political analyst

No, Russia will not give money to Moldova, at least not for development. This loan was promised in totally non-transparent conditions, with evident political connotation. 

This credit is inspired by propaganda campaigns saying, that the country doesn’t necessarily need the E.U., and its money; the country can find money in Russia too.

Russia itself has big financial problems, so it’s not happy to give money to Moldova. Even if it does, this money will be used to support cultural projects, something related to the Russian language, the Pushkin House and others. 

It may invest in the economy too, but in certain strategic points, to have control areas: the port, the airport, access to the Danube, the South Basarabia, historical region. 

In the current political context, I believe, a geopolitical reorientation of Moldova from West to East is being prepared informationally.   

Veaceslav Negruţă, Transparency International expert

I do not think that Moldova needs loans, at any cost, from Russia. These are some pre-election traps, which Russia has applied to other vulnerable regimes as well, and loans were never offered even after it has promoted its interests. 

Only after the elections (in 2020 we will have presidential and possibly early parliamentary elections), if everything goes according to the scenarios agreed with President Dodon, Moldova, without benefiting from active viable resources, will be even more indebted to Russia. This is because there is no clarity on what projects the money will be invested in and under what conditions. 

And the conditions, I think, will be not so much economic, as rather political in nature. Let us hope that Moldova will have an administration, aware of all the risks involved in a financial commitment to Russia.

Iurie Reniţă, deputy 

I think that there is no economic or financial reason to apply for loans from Russia, to say nothing of political reasons. How can Russia, credit a state with which it is in an unfinished war if not to blackmail it. 

“Gentlemen, we give you some money, but you take care what you do with our army on the Nistru river. Just slow down. Or, let’s see what we can do with the Transnistrian region …” 

Russia wants to take everything we have left for half a billion-dollar loan, which is coming out of the blue, is not a commercial or financial business, but an exclusively political one, intended to put Russia in the situation of a savior for Moldova.

“Look, the E.U. gives you money but they ask for reforms, justice, other things, but we don’t ask for anything.” 

And they are right, because Mr. Chicu does not say what the credit conditions are, and that means that Russia can ask for anything in return. We definitely have to refuse this credit, as other states from the Community of Independent States, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan have done, and the government should start reforms so that we can access performing loans from Europe. It’s very risky to take money from the Russians.

• Russia’s so-Called Financial Assistance for Moldova