Moldovan PM Resigns, No Change In Pro-EU, Pro-Ukraine Policy Expected

Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița and her Cabinet have resigned en masse, with President Maia Sandu to announce a new gov't in short order. The PM's resignation has been speculated on for some time among observers, but it comes at a time of fraught international tensions after unconfirmed reports and rumours that a Russian missile had entered Moldovan and Romanian airspacehit wires earlier today.

• Both Sandu and the Gavrilița gov't come from the same pro-EU, pro-Ukraine liberal Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), and the party holds a sizeable majority in parliament meaning the main thrust of gov't policy, even with a change in leadership, will remain directed towards Brussels not Moscow. In her resignation speech Gavrilița stated: "If the government enjoyed the same confidence at home as it did abroad, with our partners, we would have been able to govern for longer,"
• Moldova-based journalist David Smith speculates on the potential replacements for Gavrilița: "Topping the list in speculation is Dorin Recean, Defense and National Security Advisor to President Sandu and previous Minister of Internal Affairs under the Filat and Leanca governments 2012 - 2015. Other names frequently tossed around are Igor Grosu, PAS Speaker of Parliament, and Andrei Spinu, Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development."
• While Moldova sits as a relatively minor player in CEE politics and economics, the nation's proximity to Ukraine and the presence of a large contingent of Russian troops in the breakaway region of Transnistria means the country has an outsized importance at present due to the war in Ukraine.