Vladimir Plahotniuc

A reported bid for Romania's Prima TV by fugitive Moldovan oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc threatens to further muddy the media waters between the Romanian-speaking neighbours.

Romania's President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday announced that Bucharest will partially revoke cooperation projects committed to Moldova, as his office is "not convinced" that the current government in Chisinau is on what he called "the European track".

The State Department announced on Monday that it will not allow Vladimir Plahotniuc or his closest relatives to enter the US because of his involvement in "corrupt acts that undermined the rule of law and severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Moldova".

Prime Minister Maia Sandu's cabinet was ousted on Tuesday when it lost a no-confidence motion by 101 to 63 votes, only five months after it came to office.

It was defeated by the combined votes of the pro-Russian Socialist Party, PSRM, and the Democratic Party which was led until recently by the oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc.

Russia has refused to increase export quotas for Moldovan goods for 2019, setting a quota of 15,000 export permits for Moldovan producers - 3,000 less than in 2018.

The Moldovan Economy and Infrastructure Ministry on Wednesday said Russia wanted Moldova first to increase the number of permits for Russian transport operators.

Prime Minister-designate Ludovic Orban on Wednesday evening presented several ministries that would not exist in the new Executive, including the Energy Ministry and the Ministry for Romanians Abroad. "Energy is also economy and tourism is economy, too. Waters, forestry, environment are somehow an area.

Anti-graft prosecutors in Moldova on Wednesday interrogated Vladimir Novosadiuc, director of Sputnik Moldova, a news agency affiliated to the Kremlin, over a notorious money-laundering scheme.

Human rights activists from the "Occupy Guguta" movement in Moldova unveiled a banner on Tuesday night at the national football match between Moldova and Turkey, with a critical message for the authoritarian Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Moldova's interim prosecutor general has opened a criminal investigation into the Democratic Party on suspicion of 'usurping power' when it resisted handing over the reins of government during a post-election crisis in June.

Moldovan law-enforcement authorities have issued a national arrest warrant for Ilan Shor, the alleged mastermind behind the "grand theft" of one billion US dollars from the Moldovan banking system in 2014, who is believed to have left the country in mid-July.