Moldova’s pro-EU government resigned Friday after months of trying to resist economic and political pressure from Moscow that has been amplified by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in neighboring Ukraine.
At a surprise press briefing Friday, Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița announced she was resigning together with her pro-Western government. Moldova was granted candidate status to the European Union last June, together with Ukraine, but the government has faced intense pressure from Moscow, which has sought to undermine its authority.
“If our government had had the same support at home as we had from our European partners, we could have advanced further and faster,” Gavriliţa said. “Moldova is entering a new phase, one in which security is our priority,” she added.
President Maia Sandu said she would launch discussions with the political parties in parliament to appoint a new prime minister.
The Moldovan government has long accused Russia, which bases soldiers in the breakaway region of Transnistria in the east, of stirring unrest in the country, including protests in the capital, Chișinău. In an interview with POLITICO last month, Sandu accused Russia of using the energy crisis and spiraling costs to “bring instability to Moldova,” referring to disinformation efforts by Russia to stoke anti-government feeling.
Moscow has a long history of turning the economic screws on Moldova over the past two decades to undermine pro-EU administrations, most notoriously by rolling out bans on imports into Russia of Moldova’s all-important wines.
The government’s collapse on Friday comes just days after Gavriliţa met with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels to take stock of Moldova’s EU membership prospects.
Bordering Ukraine, Moldova has found itself precariously close to the war, and has been keen to strike a balancing act as it seeks to protect itself militarily without provoking Moscow.
The country of 2.5 million people, which was 100 percent dependent on Russian gas before the invasion of Ukraine, had been battling spiking inflation and public unrest about soaring energy costs.
Sandu, a Harvard-educated former anti-corruption campaigner, told POLITICO last month that a “serious discussion” was now taking place in the country, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the possibility of joining a defense alliance.
“Now, there is a serious discussion … about our capacity to defend ourselves, whether we can do it ourselves, or whether we should be part of a larger alliance,” she said. “And if we come, at some point, to the conclusion as a nation that we need to change neutrality, this should happen through a democratic process.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told EU leaders during Thursday’s European summit in Brussels that Ukraine had intercepted Russian plans to “destroy” Moldova.
Moldovan intelligence services later confirmed they had also identified “subversive activities” aimed at “undermining the state of the Republic of Moldova, destabilizing and violating public order.”
The Moldovan foreign ministry announced Friday it would summon the Russian ambassador over the “unacceptable violation of [Moldova’s] airspace by a Russian missile” which flew over the country as part of an extensive Russian attack on Ukraine.
Ana Fota contributed reporting.
This article has been updated.
