The European Union–Moldova association and free trade agreements, to be initialed in Vilnius and signed next year, should enable Moldova’s existing government to win the 2014 elections against the Communist Party and fend off Russian pressures. With that in mind, EU officials and the Moldovan... MORE

The European Union and Moldova are fully set to initial an Association Agreement (AA) and a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) at the EU’s Eastern Partnership Summit on November 28¬–29 in Vilnius, under the EU’s Lithuanian presidency. Moreover, uniquely for Moldova at the... MORE

On October 4, the Moldovan government published the text of the agreement handing Chisinau International Airport to a Russian consortium, led by Khabarovsk-based Komaks, in an exclusive concession (Unimedia, October 4).Under the agreement, the Russian side shall operate the Chisinau airport for 49 years (until... MORE

Moldova’s governing Pro-Europe Coalition is handing Chisinau International Airport over to the Komaks company from Khabarovsk, eastern Siberia, in association with a company belonging to Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska. The Khabarovsk company is headed by a “former” officer of the KGB and the Federal Security... MORE

Last month, the Kremlin snapped its fingers and Armenia turned its back on Europe literally overnight, choosing to join the Russia-led Customs Union instead of concluding association and free-trade agreements with the European Union (see EDM, September 6, 11, 18). The Russian government is almost... MORE

During the summer months, Moldova’s still-strong Communist Party threatened to stage what it terms a “velvet revolution” by October, so as to derail the conclusion of Moldova’s association agreements with the European Union. The “Red October’s” minimal goal is to pre-empt the association agreements’ conclusion,... MORE

Moscow’s imposition of a wine embargo against Moldova as part of the Russian effort to dissuade Chisinau from pursuing closer ties with the European Union is not working as the Russians had hoped. In fact, Moldova had been exporting only about a quarter of its... MORE

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visited Moldova on September 2–3, in his parallel capacities as President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy “on Transnistria” (“po Pridnestroviyu”) and as Russian co-chairman of the Russia-Moldova Inter-Governmental Economic Cooperation Commission. This visit had no other purpose than to threaten... MORE

On July 29, the Russian defense ministry’s Zvezda Television announced that new helicopters would “soon” be delivered to Russian “peacekeeping” troops in Moldova’s Transnistria territory. It claimed that the matter “is being agreed upon” with Moldova, following the green light already received from Tiraspol (Zvezda... MORE

From 1990 until 1994, Moldova faced two secessionist, Russia-oriented “republics” on its territory: Transnistria and Gagauzia. The autonomy settlement, negotiated by Chisinau with the Gagauz in 1994, retrieved Moldova’s southern territory that had at that stage been practically lost. It also succeeded in de-coupling the... MORE