Moldova. Traces of the “robbery of the century” lead to Donbass
Another outbreak of street activity occurred over the weekend in Chisinau. On the approaches to parliament, the police stood in the way of the demonstrators, and there was a scuffle, although rather weak, after which the protesters retreated.
For six months now, the protest movement in Ukraine’s western neighbors has not subsided. Not to be confused with Western partners. In September, it finally took on the visual forms of the Maidan that are familiar to us - a tent camp on the main square, a stage and its own “special atmosphere”.
True, Moldovan citizens strongly deny analogies with Ukrainian events. And, indeed, Moldova is not Ukraine. In open-air tents there live not only supporters of European integration through dissolution in Romania, but also representatives of the opposite political spectrum - socialists, Eurasians and supporters of preserving Moldovan statehood.
Let me remind you that the current political crisis in Moldova was provoked by the so-called. “the scam of the century,” a report about which seasoned CNN journalists titled “how to steal a billion in three days,” and the FBI became seriously interested in the investigation.
The essence of the story is simple - Western financial institutions allocated a large sum to the government of Moldova to restructure the banking system. But the Moldovan oligarchs interpreted the term “restructuring” in their own way, and simply withdrew this money from the country through controlled banks. The national currency exchange rate collapsed, and the republic was on the verge of default.
The IMF, shocked by such a non-trivial approach to reforming the financial system, prohibited Romania from issuing a vital loan to its fraternal country.
And this weekend, speaking in the middle of a tent city of supporters of Moldova’s sovereignty and the pro-Russian vector of development, the leader of “Our Party” Renato Usatii voiced interesting details of that same financial scam. It turned out that Donbass could not do without it either.
According to the Moldovan politician, the companies through which funds were withdrawn from three financial institutions of a major Moldovan banker, husband of singer Jasmine, Ilan Shor, were sold over the past month to various citizens of Ukraine, who all happened to have Lugansk or Donetsk registration. The attackers took advantage of the difficult situation of refugees from the war zone and offered them to transfer dubious assets to themselves for a reward of 1200 - 2000 euros.
According to Usatii, some of these citizens have already been arrested and are giving evidence. Observers are left to guess what will happen first in Moldova - a default, the fall of the government, or the answer to the question asked by the EU representative in the Republic of Moldova: “how can you steal such a large amount in such a small country”?
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Now the editors are aware.