Opinion: Brussels Made It Clear, It Won’t Tolerate Coalition with Plahotniuc

RTA regular author Sergey Isaenko noted the language of the PACE resolution on money laundering in Moldova. The expert is sure that the document is fully consistent with the idea of ‘deoligarchization’ of the country and the liberation of government institutions from corrupt officials. Sergey Isaenko, RTA: It is known that a scandal broke around adoption of the resolution on money laundering through Moldova. Former deputy of Moldovan Parliament Valeriu Ghiletchi alone arrived at the PACE spring session in Strasbourg from Moldova. None of Ghiletchi’s former colleagues knew about the trip, and he claims that he went to PACE “on his own initiative”. The press immediately suggested that the visit is unofficial due to the topic of the PACE session: the authorities preferred to silence the EU’s conclusions on corruption in Moldova as much as possible and not to send too many ears to Strasbourg from among the former delegates of Moldova. At first glance, the story of the withdrawal of billions of dollars from Russia through the banks of Moldova and Latvia has long been well known. Money flowed from Russian banks to Moldova through phantoms and corrupt officials in the judiciary and then to different parts of the world, and part of it as fees ended up in the pockets of the perpetrators. The recent PACE resolution did not reveal anything new on the Laundromat – it is rather a specific political moment within Moldova itself that the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe coincided with. Bargaining for the future ruling coalition between the political forces of Moldova is in full swing. Experts and politicians from both geopolitical wings suggest the pro-Europeans from the ACUM bloc and of the Party of Socialists of Igor Dodon to combine efforts and mandates to overthrow power of the oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc. Judging by the fact that both forces are clearly struggling to overcome mutual disrespect and open personal antipathy, but do not leave the conditional negotiating table on the creation of a coalition, the ‘anti-oligarchic’ association of pro-European right wing and pro-Russian left wing seems to be the only acceptable option for Moldova’s external partners. It is significant that the Democratic Party has been either silent in recent days or through controlled experts gradually discredited the idea of the PSRM-ACUM coalition. It seems that the ‘friendship against Plahotniuc’ scenario becomes a real threat to the power of the democrats. Against this background, the authorities want to silence another resolution on the Laundromat due to the fact that PACE has not accidentally ‘stirred up’ the embers of this case right now, when there is a political adjustment of pro-Europeans and socialists. The leader of the democrats Vlad Plahotniuc made a lot of efforts to distance himself from the Laundromat as much as possible – since the scheme was revealed, Moldova has had high-profile cases, and no less loud imprisonments. The most striking example is the businessman Veaceslav Platon, who the Moldovan court has sentenced to a life imprisonment for the organization and implementation of the Laundromat scheme. However, after 2015, when Moldova was first called a captured state, Vlad Plahotniuc made a lot of efforts to look like a fighter against corruption – the CNA regularly conducted investigations and revealed corruption schemes in almost every department of the country. Whatever it was, it did not help the leader of the Democratic Party: in Europe he is still considered an informal master of Moldova and the ultimate beneficiary of most of the gray transactions and corruption schemes in the country. Therefore, this PACE resolution on Laundromat against the background of negotiations on the ruling coalition signals that the EU will not tolerate a coalition with Plahotniuc in any form. PACE recommends conducting a full investigation of money laundering, to prohibit people involved in these schemes from holding public positions, to suspend the tax amnesty and not to discriminate against people on political grounds when they are employed in the state. It is obvious that for the European Union meeting of these recommendations and Vlad Plahotniuc in power are incompatible. In addition, Brussels has repeatedly pointed to the obvious selectivity of the fight against money laundering in Moldova: Veaceslav Platon, who is considered a competitor of Plahotniuc, will spend 18 years in jail. At the same time, Ilan Shor, accused of withdrawing the ‘golden billion’ from Moldova, was successfully elected to Parliament and is rumored to be a direct ally of the main oligarch. Among the recommendations of PACE, there are other direct attacks on Plahotniuc: the mention of the tax amnesty ruins the oligarch’s plans to gather business partners around him, offering them a redistribution of property in exchange for political support. Judging by the position of Brussels, such actions will only aggravate the situation of Plahotniuc when trying to re-come to power. Apparently, Brussels is ready to use serious efforts to prevent the democrats from leading Moldova for the next five years. The ACUM bloc and the PSRM have a good chance to finish what they started and still agree on a coalition, as long as the European Union does not seem to hide its political support for this scenario.