Moldova Moves to Take Airport Back Into State Ownership

Moldovan authorities on Monday said they were scrapping the concession agreement for Chisinau international airport and moving to take it back into state ownership.

The Prime Minister, Ion Chicu, said the government had started the procedure of declaring the concession holder, Avia Invest, insolvent, meaning the cancellation of the agreement.

The main airport in the country was rented in a concession in 2013 for 49 years to Avia Invest, largely owned by a Cyprus-based Russian business who is seen as a front for the fugitive tycoon and politician Ilan Shor - also seen as the mastermind behind the "grand theft" of one billion US dollars from the banking system.

Chicu said Avia Invest was now in a state of "financial incapacity" and that "its accounts have been blocked and it has started insolvency procedures, which means the cancellation of the concession contract". He added that the company owed the state over 22 million lei [1.1 million euros] in debts.

The Prime Minister blamed the previous pro-EU government led by Maia Sandu for rescheduling its previous debts of 100 million lei [5 million euros], from October 2019 until May 2020.

On May 6, the Civil Aeronautical Authority, AAC, asked the state to intervene over Avia Invest's accumulated debts over 18 months, saying it had not made any payments for vital maintenance services on the airport runways.

Avia Invest rejected the AAC statements as "manipulative and not fully presenting the truth". But on May 14 President Igor Dodon summoned the national security council and put the issue of the airport concession contract among the four big topics to be discussed in the meeting.

Dodon has long criticised the airport concession, and told the meeting that Avia Invest had failed...