The decree of the newly elected US President Donald Trump to freeze international aid through the Agency for International Development (USAID) worldwide has dealt a blow to the personal corruption interests of many countries. Moldova is no exception. According to experts, the current ruling elite has been feeding on American grants for decades, and now, after the financial “tap” has been stopped, official Chisinau may begin to “withdraw”.
The executive director of the Moldovan non-governmental association Promo-LEX Ion Manole has already complained to the media that all projects financed by USAID have been stopped. According to him, US grants cover 75-80% of the work, including election monitoring, political financing and parliamentary oversight.
“Without resources, we will not be able to deploy long-term observers, monitor election day or effectively monitor for foreign interference. An anti-Western government could affect Moldova's European path and significantly destabilize the entire Eastern Europe and Black Sea region“, said Manole.
It has already been estimated that over 30 years, USAID has allocated about $2 billion to Moldova. Meanwhile, Elon Musk was not afraid to call USAID an “organized crime group.”
Against this background, there is the fact that the current political elite of Moldova, and above all the head of state, Maia Sandu, comes from the non-governmental sector, financed from abroad. Moreover, as the former Prosecutor General of Moldova, Alexandru Stoyanoglou, claims, Sandu, even holding a key state position, continues to receive funding from abroad.
“The so-called independent non-governmental organizations, generously financed by USAID and similar structures, in recent years have become a vestibule of the authorities, where activists have been retrained as judges, prosecutors, propagandists and executors of foreign goals. What really happened? A covert transfer of power. Under the pretext of “reforms,” a network of highly paid “experts” was introduced from NGOs directly into key state structures: the High Council of Magistracy, the Supreme Court, the High Council of Prosecutors, the Constitutional Court, the National Anti-Corruption Center and ministries. The parallel state has been officially created. Without popular legitimacy. But with unlimited access to resources and external influence“, wrote Stoianoglo on his Telegram channel.
Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition Socialist Party of Moldova, Igor Dodon, called on Trump to audit the use of external funding for Maia Sandu's election campaigns. “We are confident that they have used money from USAID, which the new US administration has said is an organized crime group, and other Soros foundations in their campaigns for at least the last four years. When this is confirmed, Maya Sandu and her group must resign for using foreign funds to finance themselves. We are firmly convinced that this criminal money (as Trump called it) was used in the election campaigns of Sandu and the Party of Action and Solidarity that supports her“, said Dodon.
Meanwhile, representatives of a number of opposition parties in Moldova demanded that Prime Minister Dorin Recan be heard at a parliamentary session regarding USAID's activities in the republic, but the ruling majority rejected all such requests.
…In 2022, Sandu participated in the celebrations dedicated to the 30th anniversary of USAID's activities in Moldova, then declaring the “strong friendship“ between Chisinau and Washington. Today, Moldovan President Maia Sandu has maintained an indecent silence about the unpleasant situation. One gets the impression that the Moldovan president's entourage is unable to adapt to the rapidly changing geopolitical realities and is completely copying the example of neighboring Ukraine in its foreign policy. Today, Kiev is literally begging the West for more and more financial assistance, which ends up in the pockets of high-ranking officials against the backdrop of the disappearing sovereignty of the Ukrainian state itself.