Moldova

Two activists from Moldova's LGBT+ community, Angelica Frolov and Leo Zbanke, have filed an action in the country's courts demanding that the state recognise them as a couple.

Their action comes after the Public Services Agency, ASP, previously refused to register their union because they are of the same sex, and Moldovan legislation does not currently allow this.

Moldova expressed concern on Friday after Russian soldiers stationed in the breakaway region of Transnistrian, participating in the peacekeeping mission in the buffer zone between Moldova and the region, undertook military manoeuvres without seeking Chisinau's consent.

Andrian Cheptonar, an MP from Moldova's governing Action and Solidarity, PAS party welcomed on Tuesday a decision to bar entry to a Russian delegation led by the head of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnihanov, on the grounds that it intended to interfere in the country's internal affairs.

The Chisinau Court of Appeal sentenced fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor to 15 years in prison in absentia for his key role in the so-called "Grand Theft" of one billion US dollars from Moldovan banking between 2012 and 2014.

President Maia Sandu's call for a major rally in support of Moldova's European Union membership aspirations on May 21 in Chisinau's central square got a boost on Monday as three small pro-European political parties said they would take part.

The move, however, has been criticised as discriminatory, favouring one religious community over myriad others that were snuffed out under Soviet rule and had their properties seized by the state.

Currently, Moldovan law does not provide for restitution of property claimed by legal entities, only private individuals.

Criminal Ties

Montage by BIRN

In 2015, North Macedonia took what was then both a revolutionary and controversial step in the region by legalizing the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes. Since 2017, the industry truly took off in the country, encouraged by a government which saw it as an economic growth opportunity.

Moldova's Supreme Court of Justice faces paralysis after the resignation of 20 judges months before a vetting process was due to begin.

It was only when he arrived, in the dead of night in July 2021, that Terente knew he was in trouble.

He had handed over his passport to the bus driver, who was supposed to be paid by the man who had arranged Terente's travel. But when the man turned up, he claimed not to have any money on him and promised to retrieve the documents later. 

President Maia Sandu said on Monday evening after a meeting of Moldova's Supreme Security Council that a new Anti-Corruption Court will be operational within three months at most and will hear cases of crime within the judicial system as well as major corruption cases.