Progress in Moldova's Fight Against Corruption

While the promise of dramatic reforms following Hungary’s April elections has captured headlines, that same month saw another major anti-corruption development in Europe. On April 22, a Moldovan court sentenced former politician, oligarch and power broker Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison for his role in the 2014 theft of $1 billion from three Moldovan banks, which had also implicated a number of other business and political leaders. Plahotniuc’s conviction is subject to appeal, but the significance of the ruling cannot be overstated in a country where President Maia Sandu made tackling corruption the focus of her 2020 election. 

Since its post-Soviet independence, corruption in Moldova has taken many forms, including petty bribery, large-scale financial crime, Russian strategic influence, and state capture that frustrated the growth of the private sector. In 2016, the country ranked 123rd on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, but rose to the 78th place in the 2024 rankings. To better understand the progress that Moldova has made, I spoke recently with Dumitru Alaiba, a Member of Parliament from 2019 to 2022, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization from 2022-2025, who worked closely on a range of reforms before returning to private life. 

Alaiba highlighted his work on the state capture problem in particular. Seeking to do business more freely, he said, Moldovan entrepreneurs used to leave for Romania or elsewhere in Europe. Entrepreneurs could survive, he told me, “but always with one eye over their shoulder.” While in office, he led efforts to slash red tape, digitalize nearly all public services for businesses and cut reporting requirements for SMEs. A significant marker of success, Alaiba explained, is that Moldova has seen an unprecedented record of eight consecutive quarters of uninterrupted private investment growth. That progress has yet to show up in GDP figures, as growth was a modest 2.4% last year (2025), but fallout from the war in neighboring Ukraine looms large (the country has absorbed nearly 140,000 refugees, a larger share of its population than any other country).  

The media landscape stands out as an additional area of progress, as it was previously under the near-total control of Plahotniuc and other oligarchs. Funding opposition voices, including advertising in the wrong media outlets, invited government raids. Civil society groups had few pathways to hold their leaders accountable. Alaiba drew a direct line between media capture and corruption: "When they stole the billion,” he said, “they had the media under control, and it was a taboo subject. It wasn't on the news." But the situation has clearly evolved. As of 2026, Reporters Without Borders ranked Moldova 31st globally in its World Press Freedom Index, ahead of 10 EU member states, and the top performer among EU membership candidates.

Given how much of Moldova’s progress has been rooted in judicial reforms, with a particular focus on an anti-corruption court system, Plahotniuc’s sentencing carries not just legal, but symbolic weight. “Given previous levels of mistrust in the justice system," Alaiba said, "society expected him to walk, or to get a light sentence.” Considering the possible delicate balancing act between pursuing justice while avoiding accusations of political score-settling (an issue which came up in my discussion of Hungary in BriberyMatters), Moldova’s example is notable. As Alaiba told me, investigators relied on "a multitude of investigations and credible forensic reports of links to organized crime." 

Alaiba is clear-eyed about what hasn't been fixed. Reform has moved more slowly than voters expected, and, as he noted, the country still faces “an uphill battle.” But, overall, the anti-corruption outlook for Moldova is strong. With the swearing-in of Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu in late 2025, the country now aims to complete an ambitious set of reforms, targeting 2028 for EU accession. 

Marc Schleifer

Governance, Democracy and Economic Development Expert