Moldova remains in the Kremlin’s crosshairs

Moldova has resisted several Russian attempts to derail its closer orientation towards the EU, from coup attempts and economic pressure to elections interference, as we have analysed here, here and here.

Moldova is expected to hold parliament elections at the latest by October this year, so the recent gas crisis was just the most recent attempt to sabotage Moldova’s progress towards joining the EU and undermine the parliamentary majority ahead of the elections.

What happened? The Russian Gazprom had stopped the delivery of gas to the Transnistrian region of Moldova on 1 January 2025, claiming alleged ‘unpaid historical debts’ as the reason. Due to this Moscow-engineered crisis, the inhabitants of the left bank were left without heating in the winter and faced rolling black-outs, which also put electricity