Chişinău

According to the Voice of America, for almost 30 years, the army of Moldova was underfunded. Also, Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe. They declared themselves a militarily neutral state after gaining independence in 1991. However, the number of its soldiers constantly decreased and fell to around 6,000 soldiers.

The director of the Moldovan Intelligence and Security Service, SIS, Alexandru Musteata, said on Monday that his institution he leads and the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases, PCCOCS, had dismantled an FSB spy network in the country.

Moldova has started the process of rebranding Victory Day amid protests on Thursday in front of the parliament building in the capital Chisinau.

Several dozen people protested in front of the parliament with Soviet-era and Russian flags after the pro-European governing party, Action and Solidarity, PAS, put a draft bill on parliament's agenda.

A Kyiv official said on Monday that his country could ban all imports from Moldova if the authorities in Chisinau temporarily halt grain imports from Ukraine amid the threat of protests by Moldovan farmers.

The National Anticorruption Centre, together with prosecutors and investigative officers, carried out 24 raids on Thursday, after which two employees of the General Directorate of Medical and Social Assistance of the Chisinau Municipal Council, including the head of the Health Directorate, Boris Gîlcă, were detained for 72 hours.

President Maia Sandu's call for a major rally in support of Moldova's European Union membership aspirations on May 21 in Chisinau's central square got a boost on Monday as three small pro-European political parties said they would take part.

The move, however, has been criticised as discriminatory, favouring one religious community over myriad others that were snuffed out under Soviet rule and had their properties seized by the state.

Currently, Moldovan law does not provide for restitution of property claimed by legal entities, only private individuals.

Moldova's foreign ministry condemned as a war crime the execution of a Ukrainian soldier of Moldovan origin, Alexandr Matievschi, by Russian forces - and the filming of his killing.

Moldova will hand over the building of the former Theological Seminary in Chisinau to the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which is linked to the Romanian Orthodox Church, if a draft law registered by several deputies of the ruling Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, is adopted.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again threatened Chisinau, saying that "the West has already set its sights on the Republic of Moldova to play the role of the next Ukraine" and that Maia Sandu "is ready, practically, for almost anything, including an alliance with Romania", reported the "Romania Journal", quoting the Moldovan television TVR.