Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu resigned abruptly on the same day European Union member states formally invited Moldova to begin accession negotiations, according to official statements. The economist, appointed by the pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity, offered no detailed public explanation, but the move came hours after an anti-corruption report laid bare irregular hiring and inflated salaries at the state-owned air traffic agency MoldATSA. Western diplomats view the episode as a blow to the government’s reform credentials at a diplomatically sensitive moment, with Moldova seeking to cement its European path amid persistent Russian political and cultural influence.

The scandal centres on the hiring of Anastasia Taburceanu, President Maia Sandu’s cousin, as communications chief at MoldATSA in June 2025. According to the National Anti-corruption Centre’s findings, she was appointed without public competition and earned a monthly salary of 75,000 lei (€14,300), which rose to over 120,000 lei in 2026 — eight times the national average. The agency’s director general, Dumitru Vangheli, had secured his post using a CV that the Canadian airline cited as inaccurate, and the watchdog documented a pattern of rapid promotions and extraordinary bonuses for loyalists. In Chisinau, opposition figures have seized on the disclosures to question the ruling party’s commitment to transparency, while Brussels-based officials signal that future EU support will be linked to concrete anti-corruption performance.

In parallel, the breakaway Transnistrian Moldovan Republic proposed what its leader, Vadim Krasnoselsky, called “barrier-free economic cooperation” with Moldova. The initiative, conveyed through a meeting with the OSCE and European External Action Service, comes after Chișinău cancelled customs privileges for Transnistrian companies in January 2024, a step Tiraspol described as economic pressure. Transnistria responded by withdrawing agricultural land benefits for Moldovan farmers and raising tariffs for Moldovan legal entities on its territory. Analysts in Moscow view the proposal as a tactical attempt to ease economic strain without altering the region’s status, while government sources in Chișinău maintain that any lasting arrangement requires Transnistria’s reintegration into Moldova’s constitutional framework, a position they say remains unchanged.

A further layer of friction was added on 4 July when the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Chișinău closed its doors after Moldova’s parliament denounced the 1998 bilateral agreement underpinning its operation. The pro-European government in Chișinău had accused the institution of serving as a tool of “hybrid war” and propaganda rather than cultural exchange. Moscow moved its educational and humanitarian functions to the embassy, with Rosсотрудничество vowing to continue selecting Moldovan students for Russian university quotas. The closure is one element of a broader rupture: Chișinău has exited the Commonwealth of Independent States and denounced dozens of agreements with Moscow. With a caretaker cabinet now in place, parliamentary consultations on a new premier are likely to dominate the coming weeks, while the EU will watch closely for signals that reform momentum can be restored despite the political turmoil.