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![handle is hein.crs/goveijp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Servic~
informing the leqisi itive debate since 1914
Updated August 8, 2022
Moldova: An Overview
Moldova is one of three post-Soviet states-together with
Ukraine and Georgia-that seeks greater integration with
the West in the face of Russian resistance and territorial
occupation. Many Members of Congress have long
supported Moldova's democratic trajectory and territorial
integrity and have called on Russia to withdraw its military
forces from Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria. In
June 2022, the European Union (EU) officially granted
Moldova (and Ukraine) EU candidate status (although the
accession process is lengthy and does not guarantee
membership).
Russia's 2022 war against Ukraine has created new
security, economic, and social concerns for Moldova.
Moldovan officials and many observers have expressed
concern that Russia could seek to attack and occupy all of
Moldova if Russian armed forces were to seize control of
nearby areas of southern Ukraine, including the port city of
Odesa. With a resident population of under 3 million,
Moldova hosts more than 80,000 refugees from Ukraine as
of August 2022; more than half a million people have
entered Moldova from Ukraine since the start of the war.
Political Background
Moldova's political environment has been contentious for
years. However, the consecutive victories of reformist Maia
Sandu in the 2020 presidential elections and her pro-
European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) in 2021
snap parliamentary elections led to renewed efforts to
reinvigorate Moldova's governance reforms and boost its
European integration efforts. PAS's victory, and the
formation of a new single-party government under Prime
Minister Natalia Gavrilita, ended years of rule by unstable
parliamentary coalitions that often included allegedly
corrupt political forces.
In November 2020, Sandu was directly elected as
Moldova's president. Sandu defeated incumbent President
Igor Dodon, 58% to 42%, in a second-round vote. Dodon
was the de facto leader of the Russian-leaning, socially
conservative Party of Socialists, the former ruling party.
Moldova's presidency has relatively limited powers under
the country's parliamentary system, but the position holds
symbolic importance.
Snap parliamentary elections were held in July 2021.
Sandu's PAS won the elections with 53% of the vote and
63 of 101 seats. A Socialist-led bloc placed second with
27% of the vote and 32 seats. The third party to enter
parliament, the Shor Party, is officially led by a wanted
political and business figure, Ilan Shor, who fled the
country in 2019 while appealing a seven-year prison
sentence for his alleged role in a $1 billion bank fraud
scandal from 2014 that continues to be under investigation.
The PAS government expressed an intent to pursue
ambitious reforms in judicial, anticorruption, business, local
development, and educational spheres. One prominent early
action was the suspension from office and arrest of
Moldova's prosecutor general, who was charged with a
series of corruption-related offenses in October 2021. On
March 6, 2022, President Sandu said Moldova's need to
address social and economic issues resulting from Russia's
war against Ukraine had put our [reform] plans on hold.
Subsequently, polls suggest that inflation and other
economic pressures related to Russia's war against Ukraine
may be weakening support for Sandu and the ruling PAS.
The Socialist Party retains its support base, even as
authorities placed former President Dodon under house
arrest in May 2022 while he is being investigated on
charges related to corruption and treason.
Figure I. Moldova at a Glance
Source: Figure created by CRS using Moldova National Bureau of
Statistics and World Bank (does not include Transnistria).
Since Moldova gained independence in 1991, it has coped
with the de facto Russian-backed secession of Transnistria,
a multiethnic and predominantly Russian-speaking region
with about 10% of Moldova's population and a substantial
industrial base. Moldovan authorities support extending
special governance status to Transnistria to resolve the
dispute. Russian authorities and authorities in Transnistria
have resisted this proposal, however, keeping the territorial
dispute frozen for more than three decades.
Russia stations about 1,500 soldiers in Transnistria, a few
hundred of which Moldova formally accepts as
peacekeepers. In 2017, Moldova's Constitutional Court
ruled that Russia's non-peacekeeping troop presence was
unconstitutional. In 2018, the U.N. General Assembly](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/goveijp0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)