Republic of Moldova was about to receive a $200 million loan from Russia to help in the fight with the pandemic. And yesterday, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the credit agreement unconstitutional. 

The reason - Russia would be free to turn any private debt into a state debt.

According to the authors, deputies from the Pro-Moldova Group, PAS and the DA Platform:

"The agreement stipulates that the private debts of Moldovan companies to Russian banks can be turned into state debt. We are the only country in the world to which Russia has imposed such a condition. It is an international treaty and today everyone here recognized that even if they avoided it, the respective loan will make the debt to the Russian Federation increase without the Republic of Moldova benefiting from it ", mentioned Sergiu Litvinenco.

At the same time, in their opinion, the loan agreement contains statements that do not correspond to the national and economic interests of the Republic of Moldova, it threatens the sovereignty and economic security of the state.

More controversial, as it is known, are three provisions of the agreement, namely one that assigns a specific role to Russian companies in loan-financed infrastructure projects, another that would allow the consolidation of the current borrowed amount of subsequent private debt, as well as the prospect of capitalization in time of these debts. 

Moreover, the one that would exclude legal proceedings in case of disputes between the parties - they should be settled amicably, through negotiations, as the agreement shows.

What brought the three new appellants before the court, in addition to the criticisms already made even at the time of the adoption of the agreement in parliament, are the explanations how these provisions would contradict several principles defended by the constitution, especially that of sovereignty and of the pursuit of the national interest, which should be respected by any such document.

The former President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova, Alexandru Tanase wrote on his page that: 

“The importance of today's decision is not necessarily limited to the invalidation of the so-called "Russian credit". Now I want to refer to the atmosphere that surrounded the trial of this case.  The harassment of judges of the Constitutional Court, the attempts to blackmail and intimidate them, have highlighted "older diseases" of our political environment.”

State officials who defended the agreement in court against the charges in the appeals said the opposition would operate with non-existent evidence, and if the court stops it, Moldova risks being shunned by other loans from Russia and other states, now and in the future at a time when he needs money the most. 

Andrei Balan, head of department at the Ministry of Finance: “In practice, we believe that this will not happen, that it will not lead to debt consolidation, but not even to the consent of the Republic of Moldova for a debtor from here."