Moldova’s government collapsed and a pro-European prime minister resigned after 18 months of political and economic turbulence.
Europe’s poorest country is grappling with “multiple crises,” outgoing Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita said on Friday.
Due to the war raging in neighboring Ukraine, Moldova has faced inflation, high energy prices, an influx of refugees and Russian aggression.
This news came just a few hours after Russian missiles flew over Moldovan airspace.
Announcing her resignation on Friday, Ms Gavrilita said that when her government was elected in 2021, no one expected it would have to deal with “so many crises caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine”.
Moldova is precariously close to war – it shares a 1,222 km (759 mile) border with Ukraine, and has been badly affected by the effects of the Russian invasion.
“I headed the government with a mandate to fight corruption, development and pro-Europeanism at a time when corruption schemes took over all institutions and oligarchs felt untouchable,” Ms. Gavrilita said at a press conference.
“We immediately faced energy blackmail, and those who were doing it were hoping we would give in,” she said, referring to the Kremlin.
Last year, the energy crisis began when Russia suddenly cut gas supplies to Moldova, which was 100% reliant on gas from Russia. This led to skyrocketing inflation and civil unrest due to the high cost of energy.
President Maia Sandu thanked Ms Gavrilita for her “enormous sacrifice and efforts to lead the country in times of so many crises”.
“We have stability, peace and development, where others wanted war and bankruptcy,” the president said.
She has already nominated her former defense adviser Dorin Rechan, who is also pro-European, to be the next prime minister. The Parliament of Moldova will vote to confirm his candidacy next week.
At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, there were fears that the conflict would spill over into Moldova or that Russia might also invade there.
That concern has subsided for now, but as Moldova moves closer to joining the European Union, pressure has increased from Russia, which has sought to undermine the former Soviet state and the EU’s influence.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi sharply warned on Thursday that Russia has a plan to “destroy” Moldova.
“These documents show who, when and how Russia is going to break Moldova’s democracy and establish control,” he told EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.
“I immediately warned Moldova about these threats,” he added.
Later, the Moldovan special services confirmed that they had also discovered “subversive activities” aimed at “undermining the state of the Republic of Moldova, destabilizing and disrupting public order.”
Tensions have also resumed in Transnistria, a separatist territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists that straddles Moldova’s border with Ukraine and is home to about 1,500 Russian soldiers.
Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of trying to turn Moldova against Russia, as he claimed had already been done with Ukraine.
Natalia Gavrilita became Prime Minister in August 2021, when President Sandu’s pro-European Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) won the parliamentary elections.
She previously served as Finance Minister from June 2019 to November 2019 when Ms Sandhu was Prime Minister.
