Andrian Candu

The US embassy in Moldova reacted angrily on Thursday after the Moldovan parliament cancelled the sale of the former Republican Stadium in Chisinau intended for a new US embassy.

Support in the Moldovan parliament for Prime Minister Ion Chicu's coalition government is slipping away, as the Socialist Party, PSRM, and its Democratic Party, PD, allies now only hold 54 of the 101 seats in the legislature - a majority of three.

The US embassy in Chisinau announced on Thursday evening that procedures to send Vlad Plahotniuc back to Moldova have already been launched but that he cannot be deported quickly.

Party and the centre-left former ruling Democratic Party led by ex-Prime Minister Pavel Filip signed an agreement on Monday to split the cabinet portfolios between them.

All the main political parties in Moldova on Wednesday or Thursday submitted their lists of candidates to the Central Electoral Commission for the parliamentary elections due on February 24.

Under the new and controversial "mixed" electoral system, half the winning candidates for the 101 seats will come from party lists and half will be elected in constituencies.

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip confirmed on Wednesday night that he received two water cannon trucks used to disperse protesters during demonstrations as a "gift" from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his visit to Moldova last week.

Moldova's ruling Democratic Party, PD, has cancelled the press accreditation of the main pro-opposition TV station, Jurnal TV, without a offering a real reason.

Moldova's parliament speaker Andrian Candu said on Tuesday evening that the country will soon start building the Ungheni-Chisinau pipeline section which will link Moldova to the European energy network via Romania "for sure".

The first section of the pipeline between Iasi in Romania and Ungheni in Moldova over the Prut river was inaugurated in August 2014.

"In the last few years in Moldova, we cannot talk about progress, but more about regression,"  Nadine Gogu, executive director of the Independent Journalism Centre in Chisinau, told the Media Policy Forum in the Moldovan capital on Tuesday.

Moldova's speaker of parliament, Andrian Candu, announced on Thursday night that the country is looking for a major international law company to handle a lawsuit which it is planning to file against Russia at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.