Moldova’s Pro-Russians Protest Against Rebranding of Victory Day

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.

Under the terms of the bill, Victory Day and the commemoration of fallen heroes for the "Independence of the Fatherland", marked in Moldova since 1990 on May 9, will be replaced by a "Day of Commemoration and Reconciliation in memory of those who fell in the Second World War", and will be marked on May 8.

The draft law has already been included on parliament's agenda and will be examined at Thursday's meeting.

Pro-Russian protesters urged parliament not to approve this project, accusing the government of dividing society.

"They [PAS] are doing everything possible to provoke a conflict so that it then escalates into something similar to Ukraine. We don't want that. We want to say that we are peaceful," said one protester who took the floor during the rally.

He added that May 9 is "for us a holiday where we all understand that if it wasn't for that victory, we would not exist today".

Victory Day is marked every year on May 9 in Chisinau with great fanfare by nostalgic sympathisers of the Soviet Union. Last year and this year, participants in demonstrations organised by pro-Russian political parties defiantly wore the bicolour ribbon of St George, declared illegal in Moldova with the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Last year, deputies amended the law on countering extremism to sanction the wearing of this ribbon with fines.

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