During the period 2009-2014, the Republic of Moldova was the target of several attacks on economic, legislative, and social integrity that culminated in far-reaching repercussions on its functioning. The Russian Laundromat in the years 2010-2014 and the Theft of the Billion or "Robbery of the Century" in 2014 are those moments that marked the country's development course, which compromised any chance to liberalize the state and increase the quality of life.
The impact of these illegalities was systemic, at the level of national administration, by institutions that ensure the transparency, fairness, and legality of financial transactions, at the political level by revealing actors who play behind the curtain. The most alarming and visible impact was at the society level, who had to bear the consequences of the state's economic ruin.
36 The crucial blow to the Moldovan economic system was two criminal schemes of money laundering and embezzlement of public funds between 2010 and 2014, namely the Russian Money Laundering ("Russian Laundromat") and the Theft of One Billion Dollars from Moldovan financial-banking system. Understanding the purposes of initiating these processes may explain how the Kremlin was involved in these operations and the degree of interconnection between these two money laundering schemes implemented by Russian special services through intermediaries. In this respect, a general transcript of both actions allows a complex approach and provides an overview of two mechanisms with the same objective and the same command center. The attractiveness of simple ways to win huge sums of money, despite the illegality of enforcement mechanisms, has compromised some politicians' image and careers who have been attracted into this dangerous game. The most widespread theory about these two acts of fraud put the Russian FSB in charge of the operation. Kremlin’s goal was to bankrupt the country before the 2014 parliamentary elections and compromise Moldova's European path (Zeppelin Investigation 2018).
The Russian Laundromat was "the largest money-laundering operation in Eastern Europe and involved a cousin of Vladimir Putin, FSB officers, Russian companies, offshore companies, banks from Russia, Latvia and Moldova, judges Moldovans, proxy agents and important figures of the underworld." During 2010-2014, criminal organizations and corrupt politicians in Russia transferred more than $ 20 billion in dirty funds through this "laundry"
complex of dozens of offshore companies, banks, counterfeit loans, and proxies, the legality of the process, being insured by judges from the Republic of Moldova. The money laundered was spread throughout Europe (The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project 2017).
The same money-laundering was the basic concept for the 2014 theft that brought the Republic of Moldova's banking system to the brink of bankruptcy and was called the Robbery of the Century, amounting to total damage of one billion dollars. The Russian Laundromat and the Billion Theft are, in fact, pieces of the same operation, having the same methods of application and initiators from Moscow, varying only the executors who implemented them in Moldovan banks, exactly those banks that were subjected to raider attacks.
The legalization technology involved the jurisdictions of 4 states, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Moldova, Latvia, and the state where the money was directed, being tax havens or states of maximum attraction in the West, from Great Britain, France, or Italy to the USA. The beginning was made by a fictitious loan agreement of hundreds of millions of dollars, concluded between two companies that did not own assets, residents of
37 Great Britain. Phantom companies from Russia, recently registered by Moldovan citizens, were also the guarantors of these loans. Among the beneficiaries of these transactions were people who worked in Moscow's local public administration, former FSB employees, owners of state-owned companies in Russia, or even relatives and friends of President Vladimir Putin.
(Zeppelin Investigation 2018), (The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project 2014).
The next step was to expand this mechanism's capacity by acquiring other banks in the Republic of Moldova. Therefore, in 2011, at the command of Moscow, control was taken over three banks in the Republic of Moldova (Savings Bank, Social Bank, and Unibank) that represented 60% of the country's banking potential, thus aiming to take over under the control of special services from Moscow control over the entire financial system-banking of the Republic of Moldova. As a result, the state's banking system was collapsing, a situation desired by Moscow's special services.
The Russian services sought to compromise the pro-European government and cancel the signing of association agreements between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova with the EU. The collapse of the banking system and the social destabilization, respectively, would have postponed for an indefinite period the association of the Republic of Moldova with the EU.
Through the complicity of the characters involved in this act of mass corruption, the goal was to destabilize the situation in the country on the eve of the November 2014 parliamentary elections, and this phenomenon will worsen against the background of the crisis in Ukraine, the Donbas war and the annexation of Crimea.
Moscow's special services should have destabilized the parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova that were to take place in a few days through these blows applied to the financial banking system. The election results should become a reflection of the goals set by the initiators of the operation. Chisinau's reaction was not long in coming, trying to stabilize it with a guarantee from the Government to the National Bank that covered the theft's effects, ensuring Moscow's partial failure.
The essence of these adverse events for the destiny of the Republic of Moldova is the transposition of an open struggle of the main oligarchs in the country obsessed with the desire to control the state economy by “consolidating a series of monopolies in all economic sectors, which are controlled directly or by state institutions", people loyal to the same oligarchs. From these privately administered but politically protected monopolies are extracted the resources to maintain the system, both politically and economically.
38 The disappearance of over 10% of Moldovan GDP is a blow to the citizens of the Republic of Moldova who, according to a decision of the Parliament, will be responsible for returning the stolen billion, a process that will last almost 25 years, even if it is declared that citizens do not they will return no money from bank fraud (Parliament of the Republic of Moldova 2016). The impact of bank fraud has also affected relations with Western partners, who have decided to temporarily suspend EU financial assistance as a result of the bank fraud scandal that broke out in 2014 (Delegation of the EU to Moldova 2015).
Unfortunately, the cabinet of ministers: Filat I, Filat II, and Leancă made efforts to prepare and sign the Association Agreement with the EU. At the same time, during this period, the "Robbery of the Century" takes place, several actions that contradict the political, economic, and monetary union objectives. The discourse of the leaders of state institutions in the Republic of Moldova is pro-European. Their activity, however, is anti-European; it can be framed in the theory of the oligarchic regime. If it is to compare the political, economic, legal situation in the Republic of Moldova, from the first decade of the 21st century, with the current situation produced by the so-called pro-European government in the period 2010-2014; 2014- 2019, it can be seen a chain of attempts to defame the European model of country development and to move the country away from EU structures. Due to a corrupt system, the EU's normative power has failed to deliver tangible results.