Ukraine — The Ukrainian border guards here at the crossing into Moldova once waved through six to 10 cars a day — mostly locals quietly going back and forth.   Several of them never even expected to be here.  a former border guard from nearby Mohyliv-Podilskyi who said he voluntarily donned his military uniform again three days ago to help the war effort leaving behind a long-haul trucking business a 42-year-old bookkeeper at the border guard base who was called up for active service a month ago.  I’ll just serve as usual guarding the border And now these are not peaceful times at all,” Oksana says and now I’ve been dropped straight into practice They haven’t even trusted me with a weapon yet.”  sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine encircling cities on the ground and bombing them from the sky At this border – the closest crossing facility to the capital Kyiv – Oksana and Igor have now become witnesses to that mass exodus which the United Nations said could soon become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century.  rural corner — with nothing much either side of the Dniester River crossing but sleepy villages woods and orchards — they’ve seen families having to separate with some going on to Moldova while others return to fight They’ve seen the Moldovans lend a hand to those who make it across there were long lines of cars trying to cross from both Bronnytsia and Mohyliv-Podilskyi.  people had to wait eight hours or more to get through a new checkpoint built of concrete blocks and sandbags where local civilian defense force members searched cars thoroughly before letting them approach the crossings the guards couldn’t say how many people have come through in the last six days — they can’t keep track.   who had left military service to start his business said he felt compelled to come back when war broke out.  and the business really took off,” he says was called to the army recruitment center a few days ago.  “He didn’t really want to go,” Oksana says A new Ukrainian law bans men aged 18-60 from leaving Many cars here are driven by men dropping their families at the border before returning home alone.  “A few men try to leave as well,” Igor said While fathers of large families (three or more children) are exempt Such a father arrived from Kyiv at the border on Thursday meaning that while the father could leave with his remaining children three Ukrainian cars had returned from Moldova “We have had men coming back from working abroad to fight for Ukraine,” she says Villages on each bank of the Dniester have mixed Ukrainian Moldova also has its own Russian-backed separatist enclave of Transnistria where Russian troops have been stationed since the early 1990s.  The country has set up a refugee center at the larger border crossing through Mohyliv-Podilskyi which the Moldovan president visited on Sunday.  Injured soldiers face social stigma … and their numbers have soared Destroyed buildings and electricity blackouts are hampering Ukrainian schooling — but there’s also an ideological war playing out Russia’s imposition of citizenship means Ukrainians in occupied territories may be drafted in the war against their own country I left my husband behind’: the people forced to flee Putin's war in Ukraine - video This article is more than 3 years oldOtaci is a Moldovan border town on the opposite side of the Dniester River lies the Ukrainian city of Mohyliv-Podilskyi As refugees spill over the bridge that links the two local people are rallying together to provide them with warm food internet and free onward travel in cars and taxis Since Putin's invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February more than 1 million people have fled across the closest borders The conflict could result in the 'largest refugee crisis this century' with up to 4 million people fleeing the country in the coming weeks and months more than 98,000 refugees have entered Moldova meaning it occurred before Andriy Pyshnyy was appointed NBU Governor (and took office in October 2022) and before Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine.  Andriy Pyshnyy’s nomination to Chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine did not go unnoticed by Russian propagandists With the NBU Governor being a key figure in building up relations with international partners that are providing Ukraine with financial aid the Russian propaganda machine’s choice of target is understandable On 21 March, a message in a Telegram channel alleged that Andriy Pyshnyy had “bought a new Rolls-Royce.” The post featured a photo of a man standing next to a car parked near the NBU’s head office in Kyiv The claim that the car belonged to the NBU Governor was accompanied by no proof of ownership and was deliberately misleading The show’s runners calculated the vehicle’s price and made a point to highlight that the purchase had been financed with “international loans designated for the war effort.”  The tweet garnered just under three million views which is registered in the city of Mohyliv-Podilskyi What is more, according to Ukrainian registers, the purchase of the Rolls-Royce GHOST with the license plate КВ0001ОІ was made on 8 February 2022 prior to Andriy Pyshnyy’s appointment as NBU Governor (and his induction in October 2022) and prior to Russia’s full-blown war against Ukraine The NBU posted an official rebuttal of all allegations that falsely named Andriy Pyshnyy as the car’s owner the NBU also indicated that the car had indeed been seen parked near the NBU specifically that “the owner drove into the government quarter Although the central bank refuted the lie about Andriy Pyshnyy’s ownership of the car, a mention of the “NBU Governor’s Rolls-Royce” surfaced again in a Telegram video that supposedly showed Andriy Pyshnyy “racing along in a motorcade.” The NBU told StopFake that at the time the footage was shot the NBU Governor was away on a business trip to Washington where he was participating in the IMF/WB Spring Meetings.  “It is very embarrassing that a state-owned bank despite of direct link of its borrower with the former Russian president engaged in the far-reaching restructuring of debts on very suspicious conditions,” writes EU Reporter original news and paid-for content makes it impossible for readers to determine who’s behind the coverage.”  StopFake fact-checkers have detected attempts by Russian media and Telegram channels to compromise the NBU’s work which targets audiences both in and beyond Ukraine is obvious: if the smear campaign succeeded it would weaken international support for Ukraine and trigger panic in the financial markets The NBU is also an institution that exerts sanctions pressure on Russian business in Ukraine The push to create a “spiral of mistrust” toward the Ukrainian central bank may enable the Kremlin to more confidently spread its narratives about “corruption in the Ukrainian government” and “theft of international aid.” ● The Dniester river is very polluted and presents a danger to human health; it contains drugs ● The Ukrainian and Moldovan authorities do not constantly check the water quality of the river ● The Wastewater Treatment Plant of Apa-Canal Chisinau is the largest pollution source of the Dniester on the territory of the Republic of Moldova ● Corruption and defective management significantly affect the quality of river water in both countries has already been staying for three hours on a small island and on the right - the territory of Moldova The Dniester River basin covers over 70,000 square kilometres being the main source of drinking water in Moldova. Moldova belongs to the category of countries with insufficient drinking water and with a high risk of impact from climate change.  I look in his net and see a few fishes with the length of a palm.  steals all the fish." The inhabitants of Mohyliv-Podilskyi are convinced that the water of the river is clean because they no longer have industrial enterprises Almost all the factories were closed 20-30 years ago Only rusty pipes that come out on the river bank and enter the water are reminders of their existence people argue that the Dniester water is clean "I have also implemented a project for the concrete plant products neighbourhood We need a collection channel there because everything flows in the Dniester would be the "Tezeu-Lux" enterprise located upstream and specialized in acquiring quartz sand and manufacturing of pavement materials "Tezeu-Lux washes their sand in the Dniester River This is why the river becomes muddy and the fish disappears The entire Moldovan shore is white because of this factory” The registry of the Ministry of Agriculture Regional Development and Environment regarding wastewater treatment plants shows that "Tezeu-Lux" SA is the only building on the Moldovan bank of the Dniester River that has an "efficient" wastewater treatment plant The six lakes are full of fish and crabs” says the general manager of the company The businessman rejects Mayor Traghira's accusations that the company would cause environmental damage it would also have killed everything else!” we noticed that the penultimate basin has a pipe through which the wastewater is discharged - directly and constantly - into the Dniester The head of the Chisinau Environmental Agency Laboratory and that "the river has its purification process" it must be reported by someone,” Dumitru Osipov head of the Information Synthesis Section of the Environmental Protection Inspectorate of Moldova said things are not quite so good in the opinion of independent international experts the employees of the Slovak Environmental Institute collected 13 samples to analyze the content of pesticides and industrial chemicals in the Dniester water the experts found that the norms were exceeded 8-12 times One of the most polluted places is the Mohyliv-Podilskyi area !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); reads the results of the study hastily and concludes irritably: "This is not serious!" And when the reporter reads the text about the situation of water in the Dniester in Mohyliv-Podilskyi "The authors of this screening are businessmen I have an official certificate that the water is clean The Sanitary-Epidemiological Station works ECOLOGICAL TIME BOMB: HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF TONS OF TOXIC SOIL the OSCE auditor in the fields of ecology and consultancy studied the state of 25 grounds for toxic waste storage in the Dniester basin A quantity of 165 million tons of radioactive and toxic industrial waste is now stored in these territories the expert observed that in many cases the dangerous substances penetrate the expert calls for problem companies such as „Neftehimik Prikarpatia” „Stebnitskoe GHP” „Polimineral” The authorities' indifference to the water quality in the Dniester is illustrated by the scandalous case of contaminated soil evacuation from a field near the city of Kalu the State Ecological Inspection reported that about 33.5 thousand tons of earth containing 35% of Hexachlorobenzene were collected and transported from the Kallus polygon and the Dombrovsk quarry 992 million hryvnias [37.9 million euros] were spent on greening this territory But neither the financial inspection of Ukraine nor Interpol were able to confirm that about 97% of this amount - 962 million hryvnia - was spent by the Israeli company SI Group Consort to the transport this waste to Poland and the United Kingdom Although according to the documents the company that carried out the work had to leave an environmentally-friendly territory now the field looks like a horror movie scene with acid lakes and barrels where toxic chemicals were kept left exposed under the open skies are not disgusted to gather mushrooms in the nearby forest The laboratory for product quality and safety in Kyiv analyzed samples from the soil of the polygon and found that the Hexachlorobenzene content exceeded the permitted norms 1,856 times in one sample Now this poison risks reaching the waters of the Limnitsa river Although the employees of the Moldovan Environmental Protection Inspectorate say that they are constantly trying to prevent leakage in Kallus director of the "Iagorlic" State Nature Reserve in Dubasari a massive perishing of fish on the Middle Dniester has been attested Fish health is an indicator of water quality this phenomenon can only be explained by the discharge of polluted water upstream "A worrying feature of this cataclysm is the expansion of the species of fish that perish Besides the mature carp and phytophagous specimens dead specimens of old age (10–15 kilograms) and young age (2–5 kilograms) were found of which a significant number were of the Common roach and brim variety." "The dead fish bodies are covered with a thick necrosis may be observed on the liver and kidneys In some specimens complete necrosis and destruction of the kidney and liver tissues were found” mentions the investigations published by Sharanapanovskaya bodies of birds and animals have been found with pieces of the muscular tissue from the decomposing fish" the study published by the director of the "Iagorlic" Reserve mentions specifying that most of the dead fish were brought to shore between the villages of Cot and Bursuc The water quality in the river is monitored by the State Agency of Aquatic Resources of Ukraine the Dniester water must also be monitored by the ecologists of the regional state administrations We have found that the reports on water quality are published fragmentarily or are completely missing on the official websites of the ecological inspections and of all the regional administrations the regional office of the Aquatic Resources Agency in the Ternopil region of Ukraine does not have information on the quality of the Dniester water which covers 262 kilometres on the territory of this administrative unit millions of cubic meters of water reach the water directly from sewage systems a fact recognized in the reports of the former Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of this country Most sewage treatment plants in Ukraine are in a sad state their equipment is outdated both morally and physically a city with a well-known spa resort in Ukraine Although I was told by the Lviv Regional Council that the station is working we were convinced that the situation is the opposite we found the same situation as in Morshyn - rust everywhere broken pipes and murky waters flowing into the Dniester The Dniester River basin occupies more than half of the territory of the Lviv region only six wastewater treatment plants need to be built and another 13 rebuilt in this region On the official website of the former Ministry of Ecology of Ukraine there is no information on the treatment plants on the Dniester for the year 2018 a sewerage network totalling 29,000 kilometres in length with only 818,000 people out of a total of about 3.5 million having access to centralized sewerage services in 2017 The total volume of wastewater collected in 2017 in Moldova amounted to 70.1 million cubic meters of which 54.6 per cent would represent wastewater collected from the population the responsible institutions - the Environmental Agency and the Environmental Protection Inspectorate - have given us different figures.  After checking the stations in the 11 districts on the Moldovan bank of the Dniester whereas we became convinced that it did not work The most serious problem in this regard is in the city of Soroca about 50 kilometres downstream from Mohyliv-Podilskyi and Otaci Water quality is deficient here both upstream and downstream on the Dniester only iron is present in greater proportions” head of the Laboratory for water quality of the Moldova Environmental Agency.  When it comes to water quality according to the microbiological parameters measured in the 2018 report "Along with the flow of the Dniester in Moldova the pollution is increasing," said an official of the Laboratory who wished to remain anonymous These statements by the Environmental Agency's Reference Laboratory employee ruin the role of victim in which Moldova has been posing for many years The report assigned the degree of "very polluted" to these extremely dangerous bacteria in the Soroca area answer to the question whether it is not dangerous to eat fish caught next to the wastewater exhaust pipe into the Dniester near the town of Soroca The cleaning of the domestic water in Soroca is done solely with chlorine All these problems began in Soroca in 1996 when the wastewater treatment plant in Tsekinovka which was also providing service to the town on the Moldovan side of the river Although Moldova and Ukraine are now independent states the non-functioning sewage treatment plant in Tsekinovka continues to be managed by the Moldovan side. Specifically by the "Apa-Canal Soroca" Joint Stock Company (JSC) of which the majority shareholder is the Soroca District Council The biggest problem is that this derelict plant is a real ecological bomb for the whole region says that because of the wastewater discharged into the Dniester "Our village is a victim of this treatment plant," says woman borishly characterizing the discussions on this subject as "empty talks" seven liquefied chlorine tanks for wastewater treatment lay in waste No one knows how much chlorine there is in the containers "because of the lack of a scale to weigh them" Irina Rachkovskaya characterized the situation as "very unfortunate" "The worst thing is that we have no right to evacuate the chlorine there "A special corridor must be opened to transport them to Moldova the population must flee the area quickly [in the event of an accident]” an official of the Inspectorate for Environmental Protection of Moldova warns.  there are problems not only in the north but also upstream of the Dniester River Gura Bicului is the most polluted point in Moldova according to the results of the screening carried out by the Environmental Institute of Slovakia while the highest number of chemical compounds being detected is 71 expressed himself more strongly about the quality of the Bic water: "If you put your hand in the water you should go to the dermatologist immediately!” The Bic River passes through the largest city in Moldova Chisinau (with a population of about 700,000) The greatest pollution level is recorded at the Tracom JSC the EXDRUPO municipal enterprise and the water treatment plant of the Apa-Canal Chisinau JSC Chisinau was covered by an infectious smell After investigations conducted on August 29 it was found that the Water-Sewage Treatment Station in Chisinau produced an unauthorized leakage of raw sewage in the total volume of 129.340 cubic meters into the Bic river which amounts to a one-day quantity of treated water This leak caused damage of about 40 million lei (2 million euros) in one day Asked to collaborate with the authorized institutions Apa-Canal Chisinau JSC provided a list of companies that spilt residual waters with residual values of quality indicators exceeded tenfold and more in the water sewage system.  „Uzina de Tractoare TRACOM” LLC „Pascofis” LLC as the note from Apa-Canal Chisinau JSC mentions "Many businesses do not provide pre-treatment of wastewater but they do state that they have concluded contracts with Apa-Canal JSC Apa-Canal JSC must purify wastewater and render them purified in the natural receptor" Lilian Munteanu the head of the Chisinau Inspectorate for the Protection of environment says „A legal procedure would be for Apa-Canal JSC to terminate the contract with company X inform us that excesses have been recorded by certain companies which would oblige them to pay supplementary fees" Munteanu added stressing that the Moldovan legislative framework does not allow environmentalists to carry out unannounced checks and neither does the laboratory the companies in Chisinau prefer to pay Apa-Canal Chisinau JSC surcharges for the polluted water rather than installing pre-treatment plants on their facilities this inevitably leads to the faulty operation of the treatment plant in Chisinau the Apa-Canal Chisinau treatment plant is in the process of modernization and is working at low capacity the plant has never worked at 100% capacity The Apa-Canal Chisinau JSC administration refused the dialogue with the reporters Those in the management of the company blame the increased concentrations of pollutants in the water flow upstream of the station "The wastewater flow upstream of the treatment plant is much higher than the flow of the river Bic which is 0.2 cubic meters per second [200 buckets of water!]  The volume of wastewater from the water treatment station The persons responsible for water quality and environmental protection in Moldova believe that we should not panic This fact is also confirmed by the results of analyses carried out by the Moldova Environmental Agency Reference Laboratory "11 districts of Moldova are bordering the Dniester we do not have industrial enterprises producing toxic waste or chemical content" argues that the water in the Dniester is of relatively good quality invoking the results of the analyzes carried out "The Dniester is more polluted in the north - near Naslavcea without taking note of the results of the analysis made by the Environmental Institute of Slovakia After obtaining the results of the Chisinau Environmental Agency Reference Laboratory we sent them to an independent expert from Moldova and another one from Transnistria executive director of the "Eco-Tiras" International Environmental Association of the Dniester River Keepers considers that the reference Laboratory analyzes "do not reflect the reality" He explains this situation through the fact that the employees of the Chisinau Laboratory collect water samples two to three times a month while pollution occurs in 24-48 hours." Bacteriological data show that the water is highly polluted and presents a danger to human health," the ecologist noted stressing that the main source of pollution is the insufficient sewerage network coverage who requested anonymity for fear of not being sanctioned by his Tiraspol bosses explained the “exaggerated” results of the Chisinau Laboratory through the fact that the samples are collected during the working days and "The shoreline of the aquatic basins is the area of the most active natural self-purification processes thus showing these results that are quite good" the source quoted believes that it is "embarrassing" to have such a small list of parameters which make it possible to determine above all the communal pollutants "Any other source of pollution that causes the death of fish zooplankton remains practically outside the analysis." head of Aquatic Resources Administration in Dessau I inquired with the State Agency for Aquatic Resources of Ukraine for a list of companies that pollute the Dniester I received a list of 13 state and private companies. In 2018 all these companies spilt 10 000 000 cubic meters of wastewater into the Dniester alone The largest polluter is the "Infoskvodokanal" Odessa company This company provides the city of Odessa and localities surrounding it on a range of 100 kilometres with water We were surprised by the fact that having two treatment plants "Infoksvodokanal" pollutes the Dniester "I promise that we will provide detailed answers to all the questions" the press secretary of the company Analyzing the list of companies offered by the Aquatic Resources Agency of Ukraine I noticed that the activity of some was either suspended or terminated We wrote to the authorities of the Lviv region where there are construction material companies But here the information provided by the profile agency has not been confirmed either the regional administrations of the Ukraine State Ecological Inspectorate offer their lists of companies that discharge wastewater Ukrainian ecological inspectors do not mention any company indicated by the Ukrainian Water Resources Agency the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Odessa region found that in 2017 over 29,000,000 cubic feet of unclean water reached the Dniester This volume is more than three times the figures indicated in its report by the Ukraine State Agency of Water Resources talking about the discharges from all (!) Regions taken together the Ukrainian law is very gentle to those who violate the law in force. This situation is confirmed by concrete figures those who polluted the Dniester caused losses of 4 million hryvnias fines for violating the law worth 57,000 hryvnias [almost 2,200 euros] Despite this clear evidence of massive pollution and imminent danger authorities are only limited to taking more money from polluters and putting them in their pockets Invoking the Law on public water supply and sewerage service submits tax invoices for payment with the application of additional fees for the companies that throw unclean water into the sewerage This action is "perfectly legal" only that the Inspection for the protection of the environment Chisinau must be notified something that the Apa-Canal Chisinau administration has not done so far The heads of Apa-Canal Chisinau preferred to "solve the problem internally" to apply surcharges to the economic agents without informing the Chisinau Inspectorate for the protection of the environment "I have not received any notification so far," Lilian Munteanu head of the Chisinau Environmental Protection Inspectorate "And even if Apa-Canal receives such additional payments it does not perform its duty and discharges these polluted waters in the Bic a service for which it also receives money." many companies do not pre-purify wastewater Overpayment invoices are "thrifty" and are meant to force economic agents to set up their pre-treatment plants former secretary of state Iuliana Cantaragiu told us pointing out that the list of such companies is very large We asked SA Apa-Canal to tell us what the value of overpaid invoices received for 2019 is similar problems may also be encountered up north The lack of a functional wastewater treatment plant in Soroca is the result of more than two decades of local political struggles but especially of the corruption perpetuated throughout this period The fault is divided between the management of the Municipal Council and the City Hall The company that manages the running water network of the city and its surroundings - “Apa Canal Soroca” JSC - is embroiled in debts and is a sinecure for those who got their hands on the local power and then exploit it in their interest  “Apa Canal Soroca” JSC started having problems in 2007 when it took two half-million euro loans to modernize a series of water extraction wells in Egoreni village the Communist Government of that time decided that the "Apa-Canal Company" would no longer extract its water from the Egoreni wells in which it invested “The debts remained the burden of the Apa-Canal Soroca JSC an expert in the management of the company and the old station in Tsekinovka got increasingly decrepit Other issues of a criminal nature are looming around the station Following years of signed denunciation statements Soroca prosecutors recently launched four criminal cases against the former administration of the company.  Law enforcement is currently investigating the fictitious employment of persons close to former management operatives as shown by the prosecutor's answer The accusation was also confirmed by the current management of the company a woman working in a hairdressing salon was shown in the documents as being employed as a guard in Tsekinovka while having never crossed the Moldovan-Ukrainian border," Mihai Ojog the current director of the Apa-Canal Soroca Company prosecutors are investigating the purchase of high-end mobile phones for some employees as well as the measurement of accounting records regarding several purchases of building materials prosecutors are investigating the involvement of a court executor in perpetuating the crisis at Apa-Canal Soroca JSC A criminal investigation was launched against judicial executor Anastasie Repesco “on the illegal application of the seizures of the bank accounts of "Apa Canal Company" to repay the credits granted by the EBRD" the same answer of the Soroca Prosecutor's Office shows The current management of the company is also of the opinion that the legal executor "is milking" the institution through a series of interpretations of the law Repesco is mandated by the state-owned enterprise "Aqua Nord" to recover an enormous debt of 24 million lei which “Apa-Canal Soroca" JSC has accumulated since 2007 for its water supplies distributed in Soroca's local network.  About 13 million euros of this debt has been accumulated in the last three years by the former management "Executor Repesco Anastasie manages all the accounts of the company Instead of collaborating with its administration on payment management the Apa-Canal JSC has been acquiring water from Aqua Nord and delivering it to consumers the full payment has never been made,” Mihai Ojog says The management of Apa-Canal Soroca accuses the executor of tendentiously managing company accounts if there were current amounts of 700,000 lei he would take them out of the historical debt he added a penalty and stuck us deeper in the swamp.” "The executor received a fee of 1.4 million [about 70,000 euros] lei from us Igor Focșa member of the Apa-Canal Soroca Company management structure said Anastasie Repesco told us that he does nothing but apply the judgments of debt collection to Aqua Nord "I got this present on my hands (Apa-Canal Soroca - n.r.) He also said that his commission amounts to 10% of the amounts recovered "The executor doesn't earn that much All of the controls from the Prosecutor's Office did not find anything wrong with my procedures" The article was prepared as part of the investigative reporting grant funded by the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) within the Project “Giving Voice Driving Change - from the Borderland to the Steppes.” The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting GEORGIA: puppeteers and сlowns controlled by the Kremlin From the "success story" of the Eastern Partnership Georgia, a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus has significantly regressed over the last decade sliding towards authoritarianism under Russia’s strong influence while the press and civil society are rapidly losing freedoms Russia's influence and interference in Georgia are not new but long-standing and two important regions—South Ossetia and Abkhazia—occupied Disadvantaged geographically and politically due to its vast border with Russia and its distance from the European Union ECOCIDE in Ukraine - 3: Time bomb for Moldova ECOCIDE: Animals and birds of Europe - targeted by Russian war criminals War in Ukraine - an environmental time bomb One is directed against the Ukrainian people Every day there are new sad reports about how the Russian military is destroying the Ukrainian environment with highly toxic weapons In some cities that were bombed more intensely air and soil toxicity reached critical levels The deep and long-term consequences of the war on the quality of air soil and water in Ukraine are no longer questioned Since the beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine environmentalists and activists tracking the impact of Meta and mega-propagandistic games on Facebook hundreds of thousands of people from the Republic of Moldova are assaulted by messages promoted with money these messages represent direct calls for protests or actions of blame against the pro-Western government or President Maia Sandu Some posts are only removed after the American company Meta so the information manages to reach a lot of people the loophole through which agents of destabilization successfully slip is a technical one namely - problems in moderating content in languages other May 15 - Oscar Restaurant: It was at this upscale restaurant that former Minister of the Interior and activist Maxim Moroșan chose to celebrate Family Day with whom he carries out what he calls charitable actions there are distinct indications that campaigns under the guise of "universal good" carry a strong ideological undertone.​ They range from promoting the "Saint George" ribbon to derogatory messages directed at those advocating for closer ties with the European Union The "Brainwashing" of Gagauzia: Who Is Protecting Russian Propaganda Channels In the Gagauz Autonomous Region of the Republic of Moldova cable television operators rebroadcast Russian TV stations without hindrance These stations broadcast political programs and aggressive propaganda news despite the prohibition of programs that incite hatred The Commission for Exceptional Situations made the initial decision to prohibit these programs in March 2022 and later a law was passed by the Parliament in June of the previous year Both the TV distributors and the officials of the autonomy defy national regulations they invoke local "specificity." Meanwhile the residents of UTA Gagauz Yeri are daily the residents of the Gagauz Autonomy find it difficult to recognize that the aggressor is the Russian Federation itself despite being clearly against any aggression  The "Russian world" has and continues to have a strong influence in the region and most opinion and political leaders do not hide their "dangerous connections" with the Kremlin administration Russia appears as a guarantor of social good and a secure future in the rhetoric of the aspirants to the bashkan's chair "Matryoshkas" of Russian propaganda in the Republic of Moldova: puppets and puppeteers More than one billion Russian rubles are spent annually by the Russian Federation solely from official sources for the activities of the "Russkii mir" Foundation This foundation serves as a command and control center for a network of subsidiary organizations worldwide Figures dedicated to Russian propaganda and high-ranking officials who have previously acted as active agents of Russian interests in Moldovan space are listed as founders of the non-profit organization The foundation receives support from the federal budget and secret donations The "Russian world" mimics cultural dialogue through science and culture centers in THE "NINE LIVES" OF TV CHANNELS OF SHOR AND PSRM PARTIES Three of the six TV channels whose licenses were suspended by the Commission for Emergency Situations (CSE) for airing incorrect information about national events and the war in Ukraine along with their teams and editorial policy for which they were charged Patrons generously opened their accounts and heavily funded the promotion of the new locations and identities closed by the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) Information warfare in Moldova: agents and modus operandi Nobody’s Romani: Life Stories from a World of Cross-Border Begging Four employees of the State Enterprise Posta Moldovei died in January 2018 in a terrible road accident in Rascani district The severe accident left four grieving families and a fatherless child under three the work accident reached the court and it was found the employer’s fault the families of the four victims are still waiting for the state to pay them the necessary compensation The case of the Post of Moldova is one of the few that FRONTLINE DOCTORS: Who defends their rights Moldova/Transnistria: Pandemic brinkmanship brings strife to ‘Security Zone’ The war after the war: Georgia and Moldova Georgia and Moldova both have in common hospitality good wine and deep wounds in the history of the last quarter century of their countries self-proclaimed entities appeared: Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia and Transnistria in Moldova All 3 separatist regions continue to be backed illegally by the Russian Federation A team of journalists from Georgia and Moldova tried to find Favouring Russian televisions at the expense of Romanian ones has negatively influenced the domestic politics and the democratic processes in the Republic of Moldova over the years From the 90s to the present the Moldovan authorities have shown a total openness towards the Moscow press accepting it as a dominant investor on the Moldovan media market thus keeping the population under the influence of policies promoted by the Russian Federation promotes a hostile rhetoric towards the European Union and NATO and a truncated vision of the internal and foreign events Video // Illegal business with weddings and christening parties at the museum complex Old Orhei Kindergartens in a web of extortions and corruption How Ukrainians "force” the door to West by faking Moldovan passports The economic crisis in Moldova and Ukraine on one hand and the salaries offered by the European market on the other hand are the main reasons for which people go abroad.  The gate was opened to the west for Moldovans who regained Romanian citizenship and then benefited from a liberalized visa regime Ukrainians use different schemes to obtain Moldovan passports that would help them to reach the EU Some of them resort to falsification of documents from archives to certify the bessarabian origin of the applicants “Hooliganism” – the cudgel in prosecutors’ hands or how to prove you haven’t been “extremely naughty” The stories from www.anticoruptie.md may be used in the limit of up to 1,000 characters Web pages must indicate the source and link directly to the article Radio and TV stations must indicate the source Publishing full version of stories is allowed based on a prior agreement with the Center for Investigative Journalism Articles published on www.anticoruptie.md are protected by the Law on copyright and related rights of Republic of Moldova