- 15 Feb 2019 03:02
#14988247
An interesting story is taking place in Moldova right now. The parliamentary elections will be held in two weeks and the electioneering is akin to a Theater of the Absurd. In this "play" Moldova is like a young, attractive woman in the middle of divorcing her villainous husband and at the same time considering who to live with in the future, since there are candidates.
First let me give you the facts. Essentially, the voters are asked to choose from the three main political forces.
The first one, the oppositionist Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova, intends to restore the country's close collaboration with Russia. Which doesn't negate the country’s sovereignty or independence.
Its competitor, the right-wing ACUM bloc, plans to lead Moldova along the opposite path. This is a pro-European coalition of two parties backed by the West. And while Russia is still silent about Moldova's prospects, as if allowing the former Soviet republic to decide for itself who to be "friends" with, the West has already actively started making plans for it and insists on the unification of Moldova and Romania.
Opposing European unionism is the third candidate, the current ruling party – the Democratic Party of Moldova led by the oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc. And while there's nothing particularly surprising about the first two candidates for the majority of seats in the parliament, when the democrats enter "the stage", the said Theater of the Absurd begins. As if the woman's husband, already exposed by her committing all possible sins, suddenly suggested: "Let's try again after the divorce. I've changed, you'll see!" These changes are like plastic surgery, nothing more, so a consensual reunion of the couple is hardly likely and our protagonist is well aware.
Indeed, numerous polls, including those conducted by the American International Republican Institute (IRI), have shown that the majority of Moldovans want to rid themselves of the current regime. The people are tired of the corruption in the ranks of the democrats. In fact, there is little democracy left there as well. Even the West doesn't want to support the Moldovan democrats. Russia, of course, doesn't want to support them either.
But what Plahotniuc doesn't want is not to be in power. So he actually started an operation, a dress-up one. We can call it Operation Șor.
Șor is a political party led by a wealthy businessmanIlan Shor (or Șor). And it's him that Plahotniuc is counting on now in his attempts to return to the parliament.
But as long as Shor is stirring up the voters' feelings with large-scale concerts at the party’s expense, generous charitable donations and loud promises, Moldovans should remember what kind of a person he really is.
So, this man, boasting his wide connections in Russia, has no right to even enter the country until at least 2021. According to one version, the ban could have been imposed for the damage caused to a number of Russian banks as a result of financial fraud.
Shor also has problems with the law in his homeland. In 2017, he was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment by the Chisinau court for financial fraud. Interestingly enough, the said fraud was committed back in 2014, just before the parliamentary elections. At the time, one billion dollars was withdrawn from three Moldovan banks with the direct participation of Shor. The scheme was simple – within a few days the companies controlled by Shor borrowed significant sums of money from several banks, and then transferred them to the Latvian bank accounts of UK and Hong Kong companies. At the time of the fraud, all the banks were associated with Shor: he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Banca de Economii and a shareholder of BаncaSociala and Unibank.
When arrested in 2016, Shor started to cooperate with the prosecution. And despite the fact that the prosecutor requested 19 years' imprisonment for Shor, so far he has managed not only to avoid serving his sentence, but also to engage in politics. However, it is most likely that the political forces that could use Shor are the very thing saving the fraudulent oligarch from prison.
I wonder if Moldovan voters will discover Plahotniuc's "dress-up operation". Or will the country – the woman from the absurd story – fall into the trap set by a person already proven to be untrustworthy more than once?
First let me give you the facts. Essentially, the voters are asked to choose from the three main political forces.
The first one, the oppositionist Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova, intends to restore the country's close collaboration with Russia. Which doesn't negate the country’s sovereignty or independence.
Its competitor, the right-wing ACUM bloc, plans to lead Moldova along the opposite path. This is a pro-European coalition of two parties backed by the West. And while Russia is still silent about Moldova's prospects, as if allowing the former Soviet republic to decide for itself who to be "friends" with, the West has already actively started making plans for it and insists on the unification of Moldova and Romania.
Opposing European unionism is the third candidate, the current ruling party – the Democratic Party of Moldova led by the oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc. And while there's nothing particularly surprising about the first two candidates for the majority of seats in the parliament, when the democrats enter "the stage", the said Theater of the Absurd begins. As if the woman's husband, already exposed by her committing all possible sins, suddenly suggested: "Let's try again after the divorce. I've changed, you'll see!" These changes are like plastic surgery, nothing more, so a consensual reunion of the couple is hardly likely and our protagonist is well aware.
Indeed, numerous polls, including those conducted by the American International Republican Institute (IRI), have shown that the majority of Moldovans want to rid themselves of the current regime. The people are tired of the corruption in the ranks of the democrats. In fact, there is little democracy left there as well. Even the West doesn't want to support the Moldovan democrats. Russia, of course, doesn't want to support them either.
But what Plahotniuc doesn't want is not to be in power. So he actually started an operation, a dress-up one. We can call it Operation Șor.
Șor is a political party led by a wealthy businessmanIlan Shor (or Șor). And it's him that Plahotniuc is counting on now in his attempts to return to the parliament.
But as long as Shor is stirring up the voters' feelings with large-scale concerts at the party’s expense, generous charitable donations and loud promises, Moldovans should remember what kind of a person he really is.
So, this man, boasting his wide connections in Russia, has no right to even enter the country until at least 2021. According to one version, the ban could have been imposed for the damage caused to a number of Russian banks as a result of financial fraud.
Shor also has problems with the law in his homeland. In 2017, he was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment by the Chisinau court for financial fraud. Interestingly enough, the said fraud was committed back in 2014, just before the parliamentary elections. At the time, one billion dollars was withdrawn from three Moldovan banks with the direct participation of Shor. The scheme was simple – within a few days the companies controlled by Shor borrowed significant sums of money from several banks, and then transferred them to the Latvian bank accounts of UK and Hong Kong companies. At the time of the fraud, all the banks were associated with Shor: he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Banca de Economii and a shareholder of BаncaSociala and Unibank.
When arrested in 2016, Shor started to cooperate with the prosecution. And despite the fact that the prosecutor requested 19 years' imprisonment for Shor, so far he has managed not only to avoid serving his sentence, but also to engage in politics. However, it is most likely that the political forces that could use Shor are the very thing saving the fraudulent oligarch from prison.
I wonder if Moldovan voters will discover Plahotniuc's "dress-up operation". Or will the country – the woman from the absurd story – fall into the trap set by a person already proven to be untrustworthy more than once?
- By FiveofSwords
- By Negotiator
- By late
- By Deutschmania