The European Parliament on April 19 adopted a resolution, calling on the European Union to sanction fugitive Moldovan oligarchs Ilan Șor and Vladimir Plahotniuc, and where appropriate their businesses and political organizations, as well as for both men to be extradited to Moldova to stand trial, IPN reports.
On attempts to destabilize Moldova, the resolution calls on the EU and its member states to immediately sanction those involved.
The European Parliament also wants the EU to broaden the scope of its sanctions regime to include as punishable offense acts of corruption that undermine a country’s security, stability, constitutional and democratic institutions.
The author of the resolution is Romanian MEP Vlad Gheorghe.
The EP resolutions do not have legal power. Their implementation is left to the discretion of the European states and institutions.
Earlier, the fugitive Moldovan oligarchs were put on the sanctions list by the U.S. and the UK.
Two months ago, Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicu Popescu requested the European Union to impose sanctions against the Moldovan oligarchs who help Moscow to destabilize the country. He requested that the given persons should be put on a black list together with the persons who were banned from entering the EU and whose bank assets were frozen by the EU member states. The request was made after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the intelligence services of Ukraine came into possession of documents showing that the Russian Federation planned to destabilize the Republic of Moldova with the aim of replacing the government in Chisinau. Late, President Maia Sandu confirmed the existence of such plans.
