Podcast: How Moscow is trying to overthrow the government in Moldova

“Maia Sandu and her PAS party are like hepatitis to Moldovan politics, and we will cure the country of this disease.

This corrupt, cowardly and incompetent government has brought the country to the brink of collapse."

This text is emblazoned on the website of Moldova's »Shor Party«, named after its figurehead, the Moldovan entrepreneur and politician Ilan Shor.

He is said to be in Israel at the moment because he is considered the mastermind behind the so-called billion-dollar robbery: in 2014, assets totaling almost a billion dollars disappeared from three of the country's banks.

Shor, suspected of masterminding the robbery, fled the country and was sentenced in absentia to seven and a half years in prison;

the appeal process is still ongoing.

Ilan Shor prides himself on organizing the protests.

After several demonstrators testified that they had been paid by Shor, the latter stated that they had only been reimbursed for travel expenses and meals.

"The Washington Post was leaked Ukrainian secret service documents that show how directly Shor communicates with the Kremlin and how the Kremlin deliberately wants to develop Shor as a competitor," reports Maximilian Popp, deputy head of SPIEGEL's foreign department, in the podcast.

»In a way, the Kremlin is taking a two-pronged approach: It is creating an energy crisis and, at the same time, is relying on political influence from forces that are in its favor.

Russia hopes that the situation that existed before the change of government will return, namely that Moldova will not be governed by a woman who wants to lead the country into the EU, but by a pro-Russian puppet regime that will then act entirely in Moscow's interests .

Three times this year the EU has already approved aid amounting to many millions of euros for Moldova.

As early as April, Germany alone approved 40 million euros for the government in Chisinau.

But the money still hasn't arrived.

"And of course that in turn creates a huge problem in Moldova, because the government is now coming under absurd pressure," explains Maximilian Popp.

»Because the presumed donor countries like Germany are publicly putting themselves forward and saying here: We have promised so many millions.

And in Moldova everyone is asking: where is the money?

Does that embezzle the government?”

Maximilian Popp talks about how Russia's political agents want to overthrow Moldova's government in this episode of the SPIEGEL foreign podcast "Eight Billion".

Listen to the current episode here: