“Moldova has joined the sweeping sanctions that have been imposed by the European Union on Russia over its violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. These restrictive measures affect many people, including people from Moldova and those who worked in Transnistria.
Among those hit by the sanctions are individuals such as Sergei Aksyonov, who is the “head” of annexed Crimea and hails from Balti, and the former head of Transnistria’s “Ministry of State Security”, Vladimir Antyufeev, who then became a member of Russia’s occupation administration in Donbass.
Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu signed an order for Moldova to join seven international restrictive measures by the European Union, including the largest package of sanctions against Russia, which was imposed in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea and last renewed in September 2023.
The sanctioned list includes Russian oligarchs such as Alisher Usmanov, Oleg Deripaska, Arkady Rotenberg, Gennady Timchenko, as well as ministers and commanders of the Russian army during the invasion of Ukraine, such as Sergei Shoigu and Sergei Surovikin. Occupation officials from southeastern Ukraine and Crimea, as well as former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, have also been sanctioned.
The list also includes the name of the deceased head of the PMC Wagner Yevgeniy Prigozhin. Another native of Transnistria on the sanctions list is the “minister” of education of the “DNR”, Mikhail Kushakov, who worked for a long time at the Taras Shevchenko University in Tiraspol, including as vice-rector.
Alexander Babakov, originally from Chisinau and a former State Duma deputy from United Russia, who voted in favour of the law on the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and is currently a member of the Russian Federation Council, has also been placed under sanctions.”
