 and will no longer pay membership fees. This decision comes following the denouncement of its membership status within the community and the "banking sanctions applied by the Russian Federation," as reported by Moldova 1.){kind=link}
The Republic of Moldova is preparing to withdraw from the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and will no longer pay membership fees. This decision comes following the denouncement of its membership status within the community and the “banking sanctions applied by the Russian Federation,” as reported by Moldova 1.
According to a resolution project signed by the Minister of Finance, Petru Rotaru, the allocated amount for annual dues to international organizations in 2023 will be reduced by 16 million lei, from 66.5 million to 50.5 million lei. Over the past four years, almost 35 million lei has been transferred from the state budget as membership fees to the CIS and community organizations.
“At the beginning of 2023, the authorities initiated a process of inventorying the treaties concluded within the Commonwealth of Independent States, examining each agreement individually in the context of the relevance of maintaining the membership status in the CIS. It is a complex and meticulous process, and the final decision is made by the authorities based on the relevance of the documents for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Thus, all denounced agreements do not produce benefits and are useless for the citizens and institutions of our country,” said the government spokesperson, Daniel Vodă, in a press conference.
Against the backdrop of Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, the authorities in Chișinău have announced that the Republic of Moldova will gradually withdraw from the CIS, and several agreements signed have been denounced to date. In July, the Parliament voted for the Republic of Moldova’s withdrawal from the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS.
It is worth noting that the CIS membership status cost the Republic of Moldova millions of lei. In 2023 alone, approximately 9 million lei were allocated for various organizations within the CIS, with the largest portion (5.8 million lei) going to the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS.