Moldova Prepares to Leave the CIS: Membership Fees Will No Longer Be Paid

The Moldovan government will remove the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) from the list of organizations to which annual membership fees are paid. The decision was taken after the country denounced its membership in other public organizations and after “banking sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation”. According to the draft decision of the Moldovan Finance Ministry, the amount allocated for the payment of annual membership fees in international organizations in 2023 is reduced by 16 million lei (from 66.5 million to 50.5 million lei). The decrease is largely due to the fact that Moldova will no longer pay contributions for participation in the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly and in seven organizations of this community - almost 8.2 million lei. This amount was envisaged in the initial draft of the Cabinet for the beginning of 2023. Over the last 4 years, almost 35 million lei were transferred from the Moldovan state budget as part of membership fees to the CIS and public organizations on its platform.