On March 2, several hundred people gathered near the building of the Moldovan government in Chisinau. The protesters were clamouring against the Cabinet, local media outlet newsmaker.md reports.
A number of veterans of the Transnistrian conflict showed up at the rally.
The police had to cordon off the entrance. Most of the protesters demanded that government officials come out and talk to them. ‘We are the nation’, ‘[President] Dodon is a traitor’ and ‘Down with the government’, the participants chanted.
According to newsmaker.md, several unidentified persons broke glass panels in the door of the building.
The protesters are peeved with the pro-Russian line pursued by the Moldovan government and head of state; the latter is notorious for his pro-Russian sentiment and leaning to Vladimir Putin. During the rally, they adopted a declaration on the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria, a strip of land between the River Dniester and the eastern Moldovan border with Ukraine. Unrecognised by any UN member state, Transnistria is formally part of the Republic of Moldova. Due to Russian military presence, the European Court of Human Rights considers Transnistria ‘under the effective authority or at least decisive influence of Russia’.
In November 2019, the Moldovan parliament expressed a vote of no confidence in the Maia Sandu government, leader of the ACUM coalition. MPs from the socialist parties PSRM and PDM, who are associated with President Igor Dodon and oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, voted for their resignation.
