Rinse, wash, repeat
The Country That Suffers Whenever Russia Schemes
In the three decades since Moldova gained its independence, Russia has spent billions, perhaps trillions, of rubles to subvert this tiny country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine. At different times, using different tactics, Russian security services have helped create and nurture pro-Russia political parties, pro-Russia media, and pro-Russia social-media campaigns in Moldova. Russian -entrepreneurs - created a web of corruption in Moldova, too, culminating in the spectacular scheme known as the Moldovan Laundromat. In that venture, a group of Moldovan banks, with the support of several senior Moldovan politicians, among others, helped launder more than $20 billion of illicit Russian money from 2010 to 2014.
Whatever schemes Russia dreams up for the ex-Soviet world-corruption, subversion, or now, ominously, invasion - Moldova has usually been an early victim. Way back in the 1990s, Russia helped separatists carve out a slice of Moldova - including Tiraspol, the second-largest city; quite a few factories; and most of what used to be the main road from the capital to the Ukrainian port of Odesa - by triggering a military skirmish and then helping the slice declare itself to be the independent republic of Transnistria, an entity recognized by no other UN member state, Russia included.
Transnistria was the first of several mostly unrecognized statelets to be created in former Soviet republics; it was followed by South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, as well as the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” in Ukraine. These bits of territory have been supplied and aided by Russian troops and used to destabilize independent countries that might otherwise escape Moscow’s orbit. Russian troops launched their current invasion of Ukraine from Donetsk and Luhansk, among other places.
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The Country That Suffers Whenever Russia Schemes
In the three decades since Moldova gained its independence, Russia has spent billions, perhaps trillions, of rubles to subvert this tiny country sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine. At different times, using different tactics, Russian security services have helped create and nurture pro-Russia political parties, pro-Russia media, and pro-Russia social-media campaigns in Moldova. Russian -entrepreneurs - created a web of corruption in Moldova, too, culminating in the spectacular scheme known as the Moldovan Laundromat. In that venture, a group of Moldovan banks, with the support of several senior Moldovan politicians, among others, helped launder more than $20 billion of illicit Russian money from 2010 to 2014.
Whatever schemes Russia dreams up for the ex-Soviet world-corruption, subversion, or now, ominously, invasion - Moldova has usually been an early victim. Way back in the 1990s, Russia helped separatists carve out a slice of Moldova - including Tiraspol, the second-largest city; quite a few factories; and most of what used to be the main road from the capital to the Ukrainian port of Odesa - by triggering a military skirmish and then helping the slice declare itself to be the independent republic of Transnistria, an entity recognized by no other UN member state, Russia included.
Transnistria was the first of several mostly unrecognized statelets to be created in former Soviet republics; it was followed by South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, as well as the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” in Ukraine. These bits of territory have been supplied and aided by Russian troops and used to destabilize independent countries that might otherwise escape Moscow’s orbit. Russian troops launched their current invasion of Ukraine from Donetsk and Luhansk, among other places.
The Country That Suffers Whenever Russia Schemes — The Atlantic
Moldova’s president has high hopes. Putin has other ideas.
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