HAPPENING THIS WEEK

Greetings from Chişinău! Here is what’s happening this week: we feature the president’s discontent with ZdG’s investigation on his luxurious vacations. It’s not the first time ZdG writes about a state president, yet it is the first time when a president requests ZdG to retract alleged defamatory misstatements. In weekly investigations, we take a closer look at two audit reports released at the end of January 2020 which revealed inefficient spendings of public money by National Fund for Regional Development and how the controversial Avia Invest company managing the Chișinău International Airport spent over €12.2 million on expensive cars and the sponsoring of Ilan Shor’s football club. All of that and more in this week’s newsletter. Happy reading!  

THIS WEEK’S FEATURE

THE PRESIDENT’S DISCONTENT: After ZdG published an investigative story, featuring the president’s vacations in exotic and expensive places made in the last 15 years while being a public servant with a modest salary, President Igor Dodon sent ZdG a petition requesting that ZdG makes a public retraction. This letter claims that ZdG’s investigation spreads biased information, including images about his private and family life in order to harm his honor and dignity, and requests that ZdG publicly apologize, retract the false and defamatory statements, and also publish an article that explains which statements from the investigation were false allegations. However, from the four-page article, Dodon signaled concerns only regarding one sentence about the 2018 vacation of the presidential family in Greece at the Pomegranate Wellness Spa Hotel. The hotel belonged to the family of former Russian General Prosecutor Chayka. As Dodon didn’t specify which part of the sentence is false, ZdG asked the president to publicly answer to several questions regarding the 2018 vacation in Greece and the expenditures incurred during this and other vacations made while the President was a public servant. 
 

FROM THE EDITORS

PRESIDENTIAL THREATS: Last week ZdG received a letter with a request to retract alleged defamatory misstatements signed by President Igor Dodon. Five days before the request reached the newsroom, Dodon spoke on a TV show that their monitoring of the mass media in the country revealed several attacks against Dodon. But, apparently, the president doesn’t monitor the media outlets that praise him. ZdG’s Executive Director Alina Radu argues that this is the first step towards totalitarianism and an affront to the Constitution’s Art.34 on the right to information. But Moldova’s Constitution has not yet been canceled, even if its guarantor seems to ignore parts of it. 

PUBLIC PROCUREMENTS: After the parliament announced several public procurements planned for 2020, ZdG’s Editor-in-Chief, Aneta Grosu began investigating the official pages of the state institutions to find out how they are spending public money. Some of the institutions had a strategy for their public procurements, but lacked a list with the acquired goods, other institutions had incomplete lists or only one-year lists. And although the government has repeatedly pledged that public money should be spent transparently, the authorities display no data regarding public procurements that will be made in 2020 on the official pages of the institutions. 
 

THE FOREIGN BRIEF

U.S.-MOLDOVA PLANS: During a working group meeting, the governments of the United States and Moldova agreed to cooperate in five areas to strengthen the rule of law and good governance. The two governments engaged in reforming the justice sector, strengthening corruption-fighting institutions, promoting a free and vibrant press and civil society, improving government transparency and defending the human rights of all citizens. 

FAIRING WORSE AT THE ECtHR: According to an annual report made by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Moldova is among the countries with a weak rule of law, registering a high number of cases filed against the state. In 2019 Moldova paid 508,465 euros in damages, which is double compared to 2018 when the sum was only 234,191 euros. In most of the cases, Moldova was found guilty of violating articles which advocate for the right to protection of property and the right to a fair trial. Currently, there are 1,056 pending applications filed against Moldova at the ECtHR.  

INTERPOL ANSWERS: After announcing fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc in international search in October 2018, Moldovan authorities sent a request to Interpol regarding Plahotniuc. Recently Interpol announced that it has received the request but it didn’t give a final conclusion on the case. The Office of the Prosecutor General said that there are ongoing discussions with Interpol regarding Moldova’s request. Plahotniuc has Moldova’s, Russia’s and Romania’s citizenship, being incriminated in all three countries at the same time. The current location of the Moldovan tycoon remains unknown. 
 

ZDG INVESTIGATES

MISMANAGEMENT AT THE AIRPORT: At the end of January 2020, the Court of Accounts released two audit reports, one regarding the National Fund for Regional Development and another related to the contentious Avia Invest company. The National Fund has inefficiently used over €11.6 million, by defectively choosing the projects. The lack of support from the local authorities and weak technical documentation of the projects led to inefficient financing. 
In the case of Avia Invest company, which privatized the Chișinău International Airport, the Court of Audits revealed that over €12.2 million were spent inefficiently by the company. Out of this sum, around €6.4 million went for cleaning services, 664,000 euros represented unjustified increases in insurance costs, €1.7 million went for sponsorship, one of the main beneficiaries being Milsami Orhei football club, owned by Ilan Shor, and 464,900 euros went to buy an Audi car. Previously the same car, with the same registration plate was used by Ilan Shor. 

PROSECUTORS FORCED TO RESIGNED: Four prosecutors who have managed several resonance cases, in the recent months were asked to leave the system. While investigating the case ZdG found that before being asked to leave the system one of the prosecutors announced the Prosecutor General about interference in one of the cases. Among the cases investigated by the four prosecutors is the suspicious privatization of Air Moldova company linked to fugitive businessman Ilan Shor and the illicit enrichment of two judges. 

SUSPECT RELEASED: Olga Roman who was seen in the company of the former prime minister, Vlad Filat fled the country after filing several depositions in Filat’s case. Later on, the authorities began investigating her for false depositions in Filat’s case and money laundering. However, a month after she was extradited by the authorities in Dubai, the National Anticorruption Center set her free. 
 

MOLDOVA IN THE WORLD NEWS

LANGUAGE ISSUE: A leading academic institution in Romania has slammed Moldovan President Igor Dodon for claiming that his country has its own language, calling the theory a Soviet-era distortion Madalin Necsutu writes for BalkanInsight. It comes after Moldova’s new president, Igor Dodon, spoke in favor of the Moldovan language during a speech at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg Orlando Crowcroft writes for euronews. In November, Dodon will run for a second presidential term, and according to many analysts during his campaign, he might revive the arguments about Moldovan ethnicity and history.

WINE EXPORTS: Moldovan wine exports registered a record year in 2019, with nine percent more sent abroad than in 2018, Madalin Necsutu writes for BalkanInsight. In 2013, Moscow imposed an economic embargo on Moldova, which heavily damaged the wine industry. However, after the authorities in Chișinău signed the Association Agreement with the European Union, Moldovan producers reoriented their goods to the European markets. In 2019, Moldovan wines were exported to 67 countries around the world, generating revenues of around 160 million euros – 9.2 percent more than in 2018.

RURAL TOURISM: Moldova one of the least explored countries in Europe attracts more and more tourists through its rural tourism Madalin Necsutu writes for BalkanInsight. Located in the center of the country, Butuceni village is the core of rural tourism and since 2015 it annually holds the biggest opera festivals in the whole Moldova. The festival attracts thousands of music lovers from all over the world to listen to Verdi, Puccini or Strauss. 
 

SPOTTED THIS WEEK

FIGHTING GLOBAL WARMING: Moldova has committed to unconditionally reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 70 percent by 2030. The commitments are part of the updated Nationally Determined Contribution of Moldova, under the Paris Agreement. The Nationally Determined Contribution of Moldova was drafted with the support of the EU4Climate Project, funded by the European Union and implemented by the U.N.D.P. Although Moldova is responsible for less than 0.026 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, global warming affects it common with all countries.

RADIOACTIVE WASTE: The Swedish Radiation Protection Authority implements a project aiming to strengthen the capacity of the radioactive waste management infrastructure in Moldova. The project aims to provide assistance to our country in managing the historical radioactive waste, implementing also a radiological environmental monitoring program for the national site where these wastes are stored.