Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gravrilita resigned on Friday after 18 months of economic turbulence amid mounting pressure from Russia.
Gravrilita's resignation was accepted by President Maia Sandu, who nominated 48-year-old presidential aide Dorin Recean, a former interior minister, to take up the position. The latter is expected to win parliamentary approval quickly and said he would work on continuing Moldova's objective of joining the European Union.
Moldovan Prime Minister Resigns
In a news briefing, Recean, a defensive adviser to the president and the secretary of Moldova's security council, said that the new government would prioritize three things. These are order and discipline, a new life and economy, and peace and stability.
Now, the new prime minister's challenges include addressing what the country portrays as Russia's attempts to destabilize the nation. Moldova is a former Soviet republic home to roughly 2.5 million people that borders Ukraine and NATO and Romania, which is a member of the EU, as per Reuters.
Moscow, which has deployed military troops in Transdniestria, a breakaway region in Moldova, has stoked rumors of the possibility that it would join the EU. On Friday, the situation worsened when Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, said a Russian missile violated its airspace before hitting Ukraine.
The Moldovan government then summoned Russia's ambassador to protest the incident. The foreign ministry also condemned the latest "unfriendly actions and statements" made against the country, considering them unacceptable.
Following the prime minister's resignation, Sandu thanked the outgoing government for its efforts in a "time of so many crises." She argued that Gravrilita's government governed the nation responsibly despite their unprecedented challenges.
Read Also: India's Proposed Cow Hug Day Denied
Energy Blackmail
In Gravrilita's resignation announcement, she noted that no one should expect her government to contend with so many crises that Moscow's continued aggression against Ukraine has caused, according to Axios.
The former prime minister said that she took over the government aiming to remove corruption and was in support of development and pro-European mandates. She noted that corruption schemes captured all the institutions at the time, and oligarchs felt like they would never be punished.
Gravrilita, appointed in 2021, said they faced energy blackmail but noted that they would never have given in. She seemed to have been referring to Moscow's attempts to reduce natural gas deliveries to choke off supplies to Moldova.
The former prime minister also said that Moldova would have been able to advance further and faster had it received the same support at home from what it received from European partners. She added that the country was now entering a new phase where security was prioritized over most other issues.
Factors for Moldova's accusations against Russia include the alleged stirring of unrest in the former with protests in Chisinau. During an interview last month, Sandu claimed that Moscow spread disinformation to stoke anti-government feelings within his country using the energy crisis, according to Politico.
Related Article: Russia-Ukraine War Update
