Moldova: Anti-government protest stirs fears of more unrest

A new anti-government protest in Moldova’s capital on February 28 stirred fears of more unrest after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to demand that the country’s new pro-Western government fully subsidize citizens’ winter energy bills and to “not involve the country in war”.

The protest in Chisinau was organized by a group calling itself Movement for the People and supported by members of Moldova’s Russia-friendly Shor Party, which holds six seats in the country’s 101-seat legislature, the Associated Press reports.

Demonstrators waved Moldovan flags and honked horns, with many calling for the country’s president to step down. “Down with Maia Sandu!” they chanted, “Down with the dictatorship!”

Dozens of coaches had bussed in protesters from around the country, temporarily causing traffic jams as hundreds of police deployed to bolster security checked vehicles entering the capital. Shor Party leader, the exiled Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, accused police of trying to “thwart the peaceful rally”.

“Fighting one’s own people is the last refuge of tyrants and the beginning of their downfall,” Shor, named on a US State Department sanctions list as working for Russian interests, said in a statement on February 28.

It is the second anti-government rally held in Chisinau in two weeks and comes amid growing concerns about attempts to destabilise Moldova, Ukraine’s neighbour.