In recent months, as gas prices in Moldova have soared and the country’s inflation has hit a record high of 34%, public discontent has grown. There are now virtually non-stop protests on the streets of the capital, Chișinău, and Moldova’s pro-reform, pro-EU government has taken a serious beating in the opinion polls.
One figure from the country’s recent scandalous past has sought to capitalise on the uneasy political situation – seemingly with assistance from the Kremlin. That man is Ilan Shor, a politician and businessman who was convicted for his role in Moldova’s ‘theft of the century’, when $1bn were removed from three of the country’s top banks.
The eponymous Shor Party has been organising the current protests, and recent communication between Russian politicians and Shor and his MPs – as well as the transfer of control of Moldovan media companies – have led many to believe the Kremlin is supporting his efforts to at least cause friction for President Maia Sandu’s administration.
