Wherever you are in the world - happy Easter from Moldova Matters and enjoy the time off!

- David

The poll has around 130 respondents right now and is open for 2 more days. Much to my surprise almost all the articles have close to equal amounts of support! I hope to get to them all over the course of this Spring but for now - cast your vote so I can prioritize based on what is most important to you!

You can find the poll here:

I’m calling it “Moldova 101” and the premise is pretty simple. On this new page (which you can find from the moldovamatters.md website menu bar or in the footer of this email) you’ll find a set of background explainers, reference pieces and other helpful bits of context about Moldova.

This isn’t my very own wikipedia or some such. It’s a curated set of articles I’ve written, some brand-new for Moldova 101 and some ranging back 4+ years. The best way to understand it is to check it out - but come back to this email after you do because there’s a bit more to discuss.

Ok - so if you just took at look you saw that I structured the page into some big picture sections - “Understanding the Moldovan System,” “Who’s Who in Government and Politics?” “Transnistria” etc. Doing this helped me see where there are some gaps and where a few other explainers should live. I put them into the Moldova 101 page as “Future Additions” but I’d like you to help me prioritize them.

My hope is to get to all of these articles eventually, but for now I’d like to do a poll and see what’s most in demand. Here are the offerings:

The Substack polls function truncates the options - so to be clear - “5 Biggest Political Moments in MD” refers to the biggest political moments shaping the country today (theft of the billion, April 2009, fall of Plahotniuc, etc). Language in Moldova refers to an overview of the country’s language and ethnography. The others should be self explanatory.

My plan is to add articles like this - ones that live outside of the news cycle and provide a certain evergreen value - to Moldova 101 over time.

As always, let me know what you think! If you have other suggestions leave them in the comments or just reply to this email.

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If you’ve read Parts 1 and 2 of the 2025 Year in Review, you already know how unusually intense this year has been - politically, economically, and geopolitically. Writing it was a reminder of just how much ground Moldova covered in twelve short months.

As the year winds down, I want to thank you for reading and supporting Moldova Matters. What started as a once-a-week COVID lockdown project has grown into something close to a full-time operation. In 2025 alone, Moldova Matters published 155 articles - 131 by me and 24 by excellent guest contributors.

This year also marked some important shifts. We formally launched an Investigations section in January. While infrequent, those pieces represent some of the work I’m most proud of. In March, the newsletter moved to its own domain. And in July, I launched Moldova Matters în limba română. That experiment gained readers but wasn’t financially sustainable, so it’s paused for now - with the hope of reviving it in a more durable form1.

Moldova Matters remains an experiment - but a serious one. The fact that thousands of you read this week after week is what makes it possible to keep covering Moldova in depth for an international audience.

This year I also co-founded the Moldova Resilience Fund, a US registered 501(c)(3) supporting independent media and grassroots civil society in Moldova. If you’re US based, and looking for a year-end, tax-deductible donation, I’d encourage you to take a look at our current campaign.

Looking ahead to 2026, I have ambitious plans for this newsletter and several related projects already underway. My goal is to devote even more time to this work - but that depends on reader support. If even a fraction of regular readers became paid subscribers, it would materially change what I can do here.

To those who already subscribe: thank you. To those who don’t: please consider it. Your support directly funds this work.

Subscribe now

From my family to yours, I wish you a peaceful holiday season and a strong start to 2026.

David Smith

The MRF Campaign

Starting today, the Moldova Resilience Fund will be conducting a fundraising campaign in support of independent media outlets Cu Sens and Zona de Securitate. From now until January 1st, 95%2 of the funds donated will be split between these media outlets and distributed to them in the form of flexible grants.

These flexible grants can support whatever these newsrooms need most, such as salaries, reporting trips, equipment, or legal and accounting costs.

For this campaign MRF selected 2 media outlets with a track record of delivering outstanding reporting and diving into topics that few others have. In spite of having small teams they have had an outsized impact on the public discourse.

Founded in 2019, Cu Sens is an independent non-profit media organization. Their name translates loosely as “Making Sense,” and the mission is to:

“Strengthen democratic processes and civic engagement in Moldova through fact-based, engaging, and accessible investigative journalism that informs, educates, and empowers citizens.”

In the last year, Cu Sens made a huge impact, far out of proportion with the size of their newsroom, through their investigations into attempts to manipulate Moldova’s elections. In the last 2 years they:

• Tracked Ilan Shor’s influence and money flows from Russian banks into a large-scale vote-buying operation.

• Worked with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network to trace Moldovans trained in Republika Srpska and Russia for election-related destabilization.

• Investigated the fake donors behind Evghenia Gutsul’s campaign, a case that led to her detention and the ongoing criminal case.

• Was the first outlet to publish footage of Vladimir Plahotniuc’s arrest in Greece.

• Produced in-depth profiles of the top three candidates of every party, offering equal treatment and clear, fact-based background on their wealth and past activities.

Cu Sens are members of the Global Investigative Journalism Network and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. They have a team of 11, including administration and accounting.

Translated literally as “The Security Zone,” this is the only media outlet in Moldova focused exclusively on the situation in Transnistria and the security zone between the region and constitutionally controlled Moldova.

Their website has a helpful interactive map of the Security Zone as well as the deployments of “Peacekeepers” and regular Russian troops in the region.

Their mission is to document human rights issues and ensure access to reliable information for the 350,000 Moldovan citizens living in and around the Transnistrian region.

Founder Irina Tabaranu and her small team are the only media outlet fully focused on advocating for those that live in the 11% of Moldovan territory currently outside of constitutional control. Officially, Zona de Securitate lists 4 journalists on their team, including Irina, but they also note the following:

“Several people are active within the Security Zone platform, including those from the left bank of the Nistru River [Transnistria], whose identities we want to protect for security reasons.”

Their reporting is often the only independent source available about a region where journalism is illegal and residents face constant pressure from security services.

How You Can Help

Small, dedicated media outlets like Cu Sens and Zona de Securitate matter more today than ever before. At the same time, the loss of USAID and continuing fallout has put more pressure on Moldovan outlets than ever before.

These outlets have carried more than their share of Moldova’s democratic resilience. If you value their work, now is the moment to support it. Make a donation to the Moldova Resilience Fund today and please share this campaign with others who care about Moldova’s democratic future.

Disclaimer: I am a board member and co-founder of the Moldova Resilience Fund (MRF). Moldova Matters and MRF are entirely separate entities. MRF does not provide financial support, paid advertising, or material benefits to Moldova Matters. I occasionally share MRF updates because the issues overlap with the topics covered in Moldova Matters, but these are informational updates only and do not imply that Moldova Matters is a program or fundraising vehicle of MRF.

This week I attended the Moldova Security Forum, which meant coffee and networking with lots of out of town visitors. Multiple people I spoke with mentioned how unfortunate it was that there isn’t any easy guide for foreigners to connect with upcoming events in Chisinau - specifically musical and cultural events.

I’ve thought for a while that this would be a nice addition to Moldova Matters but I’ve never had much time to explore it. Today, I’ve decided to ask your opinion so you can let me know if it’s something worth digging into more.

Now, I realize that many readers are not physically present in Moldova - so here’s my idea of how this could be interesting for people regardless of location. I’m envisioning a monthly article with the following information:

1. A short (300-500 words) guest essay on a relevant topic. It could be about local art or music, or a reflection on an event from the last month.

2. A curated list of upcoming events in the next month (in Chisinau and the near surrounds).

If you have 2 minutes, please fill out this survey to let me know if you find this interesting and what types of events you would want to be alerted about.

Start Survey (2 minutes max)

Wanna Contribute?

If enough readers are interested in the product I described above, then my next step is going to be trying to figure out how to make it happen. Personally, I’m not the most plugged into the culture and events scene myself. So if this is really your space, and you’d like to contribute reply to this email and let me know! Maybe it would be a guest essay from time to time, or just sharing your favorite place to see upcoming events -feel free to reach out!

After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, many of you would have seen emails from me explaining how you could get involved and support Ukrainian refugees. My restaurant became a volunteer run aid distribution center - one of hundreds of grass roots efforts across the country that sprang up and gave Moldova the name “A Small Country With a Big Heart.”

As you all know, this small country has come under unrelenting pressure in the last year as Russia’s hybrid attacks against Moldova’s democracy pushed the country to the brink. September’s parliamentary elections were a victory not only for Moldova’s European course, but for the huge number of independent journalists, activists, civil society organizations and motivated volunteers who pushed back on the propaganda and disinformation coming from the Kremlin.

While we rightly celebrated this victory, there is a darker reality underpinning this coalition of pro-democracy activists - there simply aren’t enough resources to keep up. With the destruction of USAID a huge amount of funding for civil society and independent, fact-based media, dried up. While most organizations and newsrooms have continued their important work, almost all have seen budget cuts and substantial layoffs. This situation is only getting worse - for many critical organizations this election may have been their last rodeo.

The European Union has stepped into the gap left by USAID, but there is only so much that they can do. There are still gaps, and it is more important than ever to fill them.

So today, I’m announcing that I’ve co-founded a new US based 501c3 non-profit called the Moldova Resilience Fund. In this email I’m going to share a bit about our new organization and how you can get involved.

Introducing the Moldova Resilience Fund

The origins of the Moldova Resilience Fund (MRF) go back to December 2024. The country was still reeling from the razor thin referendum on EU integration, and subsequent Romanian election disaster. We were only beginning to learn the scope of Russian attacks, but one thing was clear - undercover, investigative journalists played a critical role in thwarting these attacks.

I started meeting with the directors of independent news organizations to better understand their resource needs. I suspected that funding their work was difficult, but I had no idea how challenging it was. Most journalists went months without salaries as one grant ended and another started. The most resilient newsrooms self financed around 50% of their work. The least resilient relied on grants for 90%+ of their funding. In order to keep things running *basically* smoothly, management worked to diversify their funding sources as much as possible. In addition to advertising, subscriptions and local revenue, this meant applying for grants from multiple donors organizations. While the EU, and members states, were a part of this, in practice it often meant working with multiple US organizations - USAID projects, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), etc. Even with these diverse funding sources times were very tough.

In parallel I started talking to American NGOs that raise money and support causes in Moldova. My initial thought was to support a fundraising project through an existing organization. From the Friends of Moldova, to the Moldova World Children’s Fund, to all the other major NGOs in this space, I got the same answer - we don’t work with media or civic groups. Their charters were clear - they supported charitable projects, but those other needs were left to governments.

Throughout winter I started thinking that there was an important gap here, but when USAID, NED and all other US donor organizations simultaneously ceased funding, things moved into crisis territory. Suddenly diversified funding across US government organizations was a liability. There was clearly a need for more support.

Over the course of the last year I’ve worked with a great team to build an organization that can be that support. Now, we’re officially launching the Moldova Resilience Fund - an NGO dedicated to raising money from individual donors (like you!) to support the Moldovans journalists, activists and organizations building a more resilient democracy.

Our Team

The Moldova Resilience Fund is run by a volunteer board of directors with extensive experience working with Moldovan civil society and independent media. Here’s the team:

• David Smith (Co-Founder & Chair) - You should know who I am, but if not, check out my bio on Moldova Matters.

• Clayton King (Co-founder & Treasurer) - Clayton is the Founding Director of the Alliance for Competitive Elections. He is a former Program Officer for Moldova with the International Republican Institute, where he administered grants and programming, including conducting election observation missions for the 2024 Moldovan Presidential Election and the 2025 Moldovan Parliamentary Election. He was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Moldova (2017-2019) and holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Korbel School of International Studies.

• Lyndon Allin (Co-founder & Board Member) - Lyndon Allin is currently a Senior Advisor at CMI - Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, focused primarily on CMI’s programs in Ukraine. From 2021-24 he served as Head of Investigations for VEON Group, a mobile telephone operator with operations in Ukraine, Central Asia, and other emerging markets. Prior to that, he was a Senior Associate with the law firm of Baker McKenzie in Washington. In 2011-16, he served as a US State Department secondee to OSCE missions in Moldova, where his portfolio included the “5+2” settlement process, and Ukraine, where he helped establish the Special Monitoring Mission and participated in negotiations in Donetsk Oblast which resulted in the release of 21 hostages in 2014. In 2010-13, he co-organized and participated in the Track 2 Transnistrian Conflict Resolution Task Force. He began his legal career with Skadden Arps in London and also practiced law with Akin Gump in Washington. Earlier in his career, Lyndon worked at the US Embassy in Chisinau in 2008-09 as an IREX Embassy Policy Specialist focused on Russia’s non-military means of influence in Transnistria and at Harvard’s Kennedy School in 2000-01 on the US-Russia National Security Project . He is a graduate of Duke University, Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and Georgetown Law, and is a member of the bar in New York State and the District of Columbia.

• Mark Sawyer (Board of Directors) - Mark Sawyer is an open-source investigator and freelance journalist. To his friends, he’s “the Moldova guy.” His investigative work has focused on online narratives impacting trust in elections as well as foreign influence campaigns targeting communities in Europe, the United States, and Africa. He previously worked as a Program Officer at the International Republican Institute (IRI), where he designed and managed taxpayer-funded programs to support democracy in Moldova. He joined the Moldova Resilience Fund to support Moldova’s independent media and show the positive power that private networks of citizens can have apart from government funding.

Our Mission

Strengthening independent media & civil society in Moldova

The Moldova Resilience Fund supports independent media, civil society, and civic activism by providing flexible assistance to strengthen organizations and fill critical funding gaps. We work to promote press freedom, civic engagement, and democratic resilience in collaboration with local and international partners.

Our Philosophy - A Dollar isn’t a Dollar (or Euro)

Any economist will tell you that a dollar is fungible - anyone who runs an NGO dependent on fundraising will tell you that they aren’t. Every dollar counts, but the best dollars are timely and flexible.

The Moldova Resilience Fund isn’t going to replace big-dollar donors. What we can do is provide flexible, timely funding to the most critical needs. Our philosophy of support has 3 key points:

1. Quick decision making - We will not have long grant application processes with lots of paperwork. We aim to quickly deploy funding to help organization meet critical needs. In order to do this, we will focus on support to proven partners with impeccable reputations and a proven history of success.

2. We fund what others won’t - Major donors have *lots* of restrictions on how you spend their dollars or euros. Most want organizations that they fund to be “self sustainable,” but won’t fund positions and work critical to this - like ad sales, marketing or dedicated financial / fundraising teams. Our goal is to work with partners to fund what they need, not what a committee in DC or Brussels prioritizes. Sometimes that will be an investigation or fancy event. Often it will be something less glamorous but mission critical.

3. We work with local experts - All of our board members have extensive experience in Moldova, but we also know that there’s much we don’t know. Through our professional networks we will rely on local experts to advise on programming and how we can get the most out of every donor dollar. Our goal is to put local voices and expertise first every step of the way.

How You can Get Involved

I know that many readers will themselves have long experience with Moldova. If any of this resonates with you - please consider donating today. Whether it’s $5, $50 or $500 - every donation helps. The Moldova Resilience Fund is a registered 501c3 public charity in the United States. Donations are tax‑deductible as permitted by law.

You can support us today by going to www.moldovaresilience.org and clicking the “Donate” button at the top of the page (or by directly visiting our Givebutter page). You can also follow us on facebook or on linkedin.

Thank you,

David Smith

Editor’s Note: This project is entirely separate from Moldova Matters, which remains an independent and reader supported newsletter. Moldova Matters will not and cannot accept donations or advertising from MRF.

**Correction:** The original version of the article “PAS to Propose Alexandru Munteanu as Prime Minister” included the statement: “Alexandru Munteanu is a citizen of Moldova, the United States and France.” This was an error as his citizenship status, as with much of his resume, seems unclear. He has self described himself as an “American” and I have updated the article to use this description and remove definitive references to American and French citizenships. I’ll return and update you when we have more information.

The full article, with the correction can be found here:

In this time, I view my role, and the role of this publication, as one of providing context and helping cut through the madness to what is most important. In addition to the Weekly Roundup, I will be publishing a series of articles diving into various aspects of the election and campaign. You should have the first of these - a look at the serious problems facing polling in this election - in your inbox now. Here’s a link:

P.S. For those who aren’t subscribers and haven’t read it - you’re missing out on an interesting discussion of the mechanisms used by corrupt parties to rig the public polls. Check it out!

In addition to polling, here are a few more topics that I really want to cover / definitely will cover:

• Parties to Watch - which among the 23 parties and candidates matter in this election and why. A look at the ones most likely to get in, and the ones who could be most consequential even if they have zero chance of getting elected.

• Parties and Platforms - a deep dive into the election promises of the top parties in the race (and some others if they are entertaining). This will probably be a multi-part article.

• Moldova’s Right vs. Left - I plan an update to this classic 2021 article I wrote ahead of last parliamentary elections and dive deep into what these political labels even mean in Moldova.

Those topics are gonna keep me busy, especially the party platforms1. And alongside these topics I’m sure I’ll find some inspiration along the way, or something crazy will happen and I’ll have to cover it.

But even so, that leaves some room for other deep dives and analysis - and that’s where you come in. Leave a comment on this article, or just reply to this email, if you have any ideas for things I should cover. If you have a question about how Moldova’s elections work, and never knew where to ask it - go ahead! If you always wanted to know more about the political parties running or some candidate, just ask!

I won’t get to every question of course, but I’ll sift through and find topics that I think I could answer in a way that provides valuable context or insights into what’s going on. If a lot of people send questions in, I might consider doing a mailbag-style podcast episode too.

Everyone can leave a comment or send in ideas - but as I wrote earlier, going forward Analysis is joining Perspective behind the paywall. It takes a *lot* of work to make this newsletter happen and I need to reward the people whose subscriptions make that possible - so consider becoming one today!

Subscribe now

This news became… well, news. Once I found out I thought I’d have to share the good news with friends but that largely I’d celebrate with my family and mark this personal milestone relatively privately.

Things turned out somewhat differently. On the same decree there were 5 other individuals, and one of them, Russian film critic and designated "foreign agent" Anton Dolin, is rather famous1. As people pored over the list I started getting messages that started like “congratulations?” Quickly this turned into lots of messages, some really kind (and public) posts of congratulations and even a profile on ZdG.

So having found myself in the odd position of being in the news… as I write about the news, I thought I’d share a few thoughts here. Firstly - to everyone who reached out with congratulations, thank you! The response I got was overwhelming and frankly very heartwarming. It has meant a lot.

I came to Moldova back in June 2012 as a Peace Corps Volunteer, never expecting to stay beyond my 27 months of service. That was the start of an amazing journey and series of adventures in what has become my adopted home. For those who are interested and don’t know the story, I’ve written a bit about that journey here in the past. Suffice to say that after starting companies, making friends, getting married and building family - Moldova has become my home. For many years now I’ve been rejecting the “expat” label and calling myself an immigrant2. Now that’s becoming a reality and I’ll truly be able to call this country my home.

So in conclusion, while I don’t think it’s necessarily “news” that someone immigrates to Moldova, I’ve been really touched by the congratulations and public interest. It’s truly an honor to soon be able to call myself a Moldovan citizen.

When I first heard about Moldova from a member of the diaspora, I remember them describing the country like this - “a green country, filled with kind people and good wine.” I thought, “what’s not to like?!” and around 9 months later I was here. That was 13 years ago and I’ve come to appreciate this beautiful, small, complicated country more and more ever since.

Mulțumesc foarte mult pentru toate mesajele! Sunt onorat să devin cetățean al unei țări atât de minunate!

- David Smith

Want to listen to articles? Check out the app!

From my reader stat I know that around 90% of you are reading this in your email inbox right now. Some of you may not even realize that there’s a website where another 7% of people read Moldova Matters. But I want to highlight the Substack app today - where around 3% of readers seem most comfortable.

I know most of you are probably thinking… ugh, not another app. And I get that. I personally don’t like getting my news via apps, or email for that matter. I’m old-school and like to read things on websites for whatever reason (I subscribe to other newsletters, but typically click the header to open it in a browser1). The Substack app though is starting to make me change my ways.

Firstly, it’s got very convienent notifications. It’ll tell you when you have a new article to read or podcast to listen to, but it’ll also let you know if someone responded to your comments. Reading in the app is a bit more interactive like that - comments are fast as are messages. And the Notes feature is basically a Twitter-like feed with fewer Nazis2.

Another really useful feature is audio playback of articles. If you’re on a jog, doing the dishes or driving - but still want to know the latest news about Moldova - you can just listen to the article! The voicing is done by AI but I find it to be generally quite good - if sometimes mysterious3.

Using the app also allows you to sync articles across devices (if you like switching from a phone to a tablet or something) and save / bookmark posts for later.

So if any of that sounds interesting to you - check out the app!

Get more from David Smith in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

August Sale

As I announced earlier this week, we’re offering 15% discounts for a yearly subscription until the end of August! Moldova Matters is a reader supported publication. There’s no institutional money or grants backing this effort - just subscriptions from readers like you. If you like what you’re reading - please do subscribe. It helps me buy food and makes me feel better about the enormous amount of time that goes into this newsletter.

Also… more subscribers means more features as well! Right now our team is focused on building up the Romanian version of the newsletter. Over time I want to add more features, writers and perspectives to this newsletter. All of that is only possible with your support.

Sooo… if you haven’t already…

Subscribe now

If you have, and want to share the wonders of this experience with a friend, then…

Give a gift subscription

Or if you’re an organization who uses this for work (and yes, I know who you are) consider getting a group subscription4! Additional discounts apply!

Get 10% off a group subscription

I’ll end the advertisement here, but with one last plug. Election season is coming and that’s gonna mean a lot of content. From February 2022 until this time last year I dropped the paywall from all posts. I felt it was critical that everyone get the best information about what is going on in Moldova with the least friction. Last year I started bringing back the paywall with Perspective posts. Now, I’m going to also put Analysis behind the paywall. This section is where *a lot* of pre and post election content is going to live. We’ll be doing deep-dives into the parties’ electoral programs, discussing the key players and message, and after the election we’ll really dive into what new government is formed and what it all means.

If you’re just here for straight news and the Weekly Roundup is good enough for you, please enjoy - it’ll always be free. But if you want all this other content… well, you know what to do.

Subscribe now

In all seriousness, the drumbeat of news and propaganda is rapidly accelerating. Plaha is back (on facebook) and somehow wants us to believe that he’s a victim in all of this… and that he meant to be caught? Disinformation is accelerating and the recent MEGA conference1 has highlighted just how transnational this all is. Moldova’s elections and the importance of them being free and fair are a global news story. We’ll cover each twist and turn through election day.

But for now, I’m going to try and enjoy some sun and sea in a little “calm before the storm” break. Thanks as always for being a subscriber and for buying into the premise of this publication - that Moldova really does Matter.

You can find it here:

This project has been in the works for some time. When I launched Moldova Matters back in 2021 I considered the newsletter’s primary “value proposition” to be the fact that it was in English. At that time I viewed this newsletter as a nice tool for busy professionals or interested expats to keep an eye on what is going on in Moldova without having to follow the local language news daily. It’s been a crazy 4 years since then and I’ve learned a few things about my readers and what people apparently find valuable about this newsletter:

1. It’s all about email - I was shocked to find that almost all of you, upwards of 95%, read this on email. Almost no one goes to the website and few come in from social (possibly because I’m terrible at social media). Over time I’ve come to understand how valuable people find the email newsletter format.

2. Context is king - Readers tell me often that what sets Moldova Matters apart is that it makes it easy to connect the dots on important events. I try really hard to provide background and color for an event so that people understand why it is (or isn’t) a big deal. Over time I’ve realized that some of this comes from writing analysis or Perspective articles, but mostly its just about organizing the events of the week in such as way as to show the big picture without overwhelming people with details.

3. Perspective matters - I bring a kinda strange background to this newsletter, American living in Moldova for 13+ years, entrepreneur / pub owner, engineer, former volunteer / development worker, current NGO president and advocate for small business. It’s a pretty unusual resume but its allowed me to bring a unique perspective to unfolding events. This has been especially true with the introduction of the Investigations section last year, which has seen numerous crossovers between the American and Moldova political worlds.

While I know you’re all here - at least in part - because this newsletter is in English, it occurred to me that none of those other 3 aspects are necessarily language dependent.

Substack is pretty new in Moldova. Moldova Matters is the biggest Substack newsletter in the country by subscribers (and recently #60 in rising in World Politics) The next biggest is AIM Moldova Business News - the newsletter of the small business association I co-founded. There’s also a great project following local Chisinau news in Romanian, and a graphical project following the Soviet Space Program - but that’s about it.

At the same time, Substack newsletters are taking off in Romania. There are good news outlets there, conspiracy cranks and much more. Bilingual readers of Moldova Matters have often told me that they would like to see content like this in Romanian as well. So, this all got me thinking about how it would work to add a Romanian language option of Moldova Matters.

I started by thinking about using AI for translations but pretty quickly realized how bad an idea that is. It’s not that AI isn’t great at this kinda thing - it really is. But there are *lots* of nuances here. I’m already reading the news in Romanian and Russian (often with the help of Google Translate) and writing the roundups in English. In that process, I take quotes that were originally said in Romanian and translate them to English - having AI translate them right back again sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Also, I make editorial choices about Anglicizing names so that readers who don’t know Romanian might better understand how names sound. Ilan Șor becomes Ilan Shor, Evghenia Guțul becomes Evghenia Gutsul, etc.

All this and more made me go a more traditional route - I’ve hired a Romanian language editor. Her name is Diana Guja and she has an impressive background working as a TV producer, columnist and community manager at Agora. She will coordinate the Romanian content, and I am extremely happy that she agreed to join the team.

How Will This Work? (and where is / could it be going)

In the short term this launch will have almost no effect on your experience of Moldova Matters. Substack doesn’t have a mechanism for running a dual language newsletter, so Moldova Matters în limba română is a totally different page. You won’t suddenly start getting Romanian language content or seeing lots of new people in the comments. In a sense, this is the creation of a parallel website, newsletter and community. Romanian language content will probably lag behind English by up to a day, but otherwise the content will be the same.

That’s phase 1. Moldova Matters is a subscriber supported newsletters - we have no grants or big donors keeping the lights on here. If my theory is right, and people would find this newsletter useful in Romanian, then it will attract new subscribers and continue onwards! Bigger team means more costs so clearly that’s important.

If we are able to prove the viability of Moldova Matters în limba română then I have some big plans to come later. Growing the audience of Romanian language speakers opens up new possibilities for collaborations, guest posts and more content - things that would appear natively in Romanian and then be translated back into English. This means that there is real potential for this move leading to even better quality materials for readers like you!

So… if you know someone who would love to read this newsletter but would prefer reading it in Romanian - share it with them! Maybe you know some Moldovans in the diaspora who would love to keep up with the news in a simple weekly roundup. Maybe you have friends in Romania who are becoming interested in the wild world of Moldovan politics? If so - please share this news with them! Here’s that link again:

Since the beginning, Moldova Matters really has been a community effort. Your subscriptions power this thing for sure, but your emails, comments and shares with friends really bring things to life. We’ll see if this new project takes off (I hope so) - but I know that if it does, it will be because people like you took a moment to share it with a friend. Thank you for reading and for subscribing to Moldova Matters.

President Sandu wished the nation a Happy Easter on the occasion with a short video message. She stated:

“Today, Moldova is being reborn! With every step, it becomes a fairer country, a united country. And with every church preserved, with every family left at home, with every village that blossoms, we regain our hope. Easter is a holiday that reminds us: no matter how difficult the trials may be, and no matter how long our path, goodness and truth always win. On this bright day, when we say to each other: “Christ is Risen!” - let us look to the future with confidence. Let us pray for peace, for health, for tranquility in our homes and in our country. Let us be closer to each other. Let us listen, forgive and walk the path of goodness together! I wish you a bright Easter - with joy in your hearts, next to your loved ones. “Christ is risen!”

This was one of many Easter greetings left by Moldovan politicians last Sunday.

There were also a few controversies around the holiday as seemingly nothing can pass without politics (or geopolitics) these days. That said, it was a slow news week (mostly) and promises to be so through the end of the holidays. Easter in Moldova doesn’t just last a day - it really is a week long affair culminating in “Memorial Easter” or “Easter of the Dead.” This holiday will be held next Monday April 28th. We’ll be back with a full weekly roundup when the holidays are over to catch you up.

In the meantime, I’d like to share this excellent guest article by Elena Vrabie about her childhood and traditions around “Easter of the Dead.” The article was originally published in May 2024.

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So Happy Easter to those who celebrate and enjoy the holidays for all of you based in Moldova. We’ll be back next week, all the best,

- David

This change is part of my work professionalizing this website and setting the stage for some growth and expansion over the course of this year. Some more little changes are coming - for example I’ll be migrating my email soon to an “@moldovamatters.md” address - but once again your user experience should not change. You might just get a response from a different email but none of the old systems will break along the way.

Moves like these are small and technical but also necessary to consolidate the branding and make it possible to have more contributors operating in a professional team.

So please use the new moldovamatters.md whenever you share this publication with a friend! Or just click on one of the share buttons like this one :)

Share Moldova Matters

Since I added an Investigations section late last year I’ve heard from a lot of readers that they found content like this really valuable and want more of it. But working on articles like these takes a *LOT* of time. Between 10 and 20 times the amount of work that goes into a typical Weekly Roundup. Right now Moldova Matters is entirely a reader-supported publication - which means that the more subscribers we have the more I can afford to bring on additional contributors and cover stories that no one else is working on. I have some big plans for this year in addition to investigations including adding a series of quick-orientation pages. Descriptions of the relevant parties, politicians, local business and more. Ways for people to quickly answer the “who is that again?” question and to proceed from there to other areas to get more information or data on a certain subject. This is a big year in Moldova and with your support Moldova Matters can provide insights and coverage not found anywhere else. So if you haven’t already - please consider subscribing.

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Also! I’ve mentioned before that I’m working on a sponsorship program so that companies or organizations could support this work in a mutually beneficial way. Don’t worry - we aren’t heading towards lots of ads and flashing lights. But I think “This post brought to you by…[your company name here]” and similar efforts will be minimally intrusive while allowing sponsors to speak to all you wonderful people and the newsletter to find some much needed resources. So if you’re responsible for such things at your company - feel free to reach out. As always you can just respond to this email.

Finally, a massive thank you for all of the support and emails you all send me. I get fascinating questions every week and do my best to provide thoughtful responses. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know many readers over the years and developing something of a community here. The biggest thank you to those of you who are paid subscribers - Moldova Matters (and moldovamatters.md!) would not exist without you.

I’ll be back in your inbox soon with more news and analysis from Moldova. Until then, enjoy the weekend,

David Smith
Author / Editor at Moldova Matters (cited by The Washington Post, FAZ, Radio Europa Liberă Moldova RFE/RL, Open Democracy Russia, The United States Institute of Peace and Emerging Europe)
Freelance Contributor to Euractiv, the Wilson Center
RPCV Peace Corps Moldova & Kazakhstan

Also, I’ve been recovering from the flu so the Moldova Matters publishing schedule got a bit shaken up this past week. I’ve got a number of interesting articles at various stages of completion so keep an eye on your inbox this week for some interesting long reads.

Fools & Foreigners

Journalism is Changing... Fast

Hi Everyone! Sorry for my unexpected 2 week hiatus. I got Lasik surgery 2 weeks back which necessitated a reduction in screen time for a bit. I used what time I did have to keep up with Moldova Matters through the tumultuous events of the last weeks. Then, I got the flu which is notoriously bad for productivity. Anyhow, I’m back. For any really astute r…

Read more

a year ago · David Smith

This is a conversation space exclusively for subscribers—kind of like a group chat or live hangout. I’ll post questions and updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion.

Here’s how I basically envision this working. The chat is gonna be a bit like a subscriber forum - maybe like reddit for people interested in Moldova news and politics. It’s for paid subscribers only and anyone can start a thread. Threads should point to something you want to talk about - like “what the latest polls mean for the upcoming election,” or “In my travels around Moldova I’ve noticed all these beautiful Soviet era mosaics - what architectural oddities are you interested in?” Topics can be causal but should apply to other members of the Moldova Matters community.

I’ll post thoughts here and there but the chat is more for you all - a way to connect with other people with similar interests. I’m here for moderation to please keep it polite :)

Join chat

How to get started

1. Get the Substack app by clicking this link or the button below. New chat threads won’t be sent sent via email, so turn on push notifications so you don’t miss conversation as it happens. You can also access chat on the web.

Get app

2. Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.

3. That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.

I won’t dwell too much on just how much happened in Moldova last year. I’ve already written about it in the year in review article and it almost boggles the mind to consider just how much change 12 months can bring. When I started this newsletter conventional wisdom said that Moldova was a small country more or less on the road to nowhere. Travelers and commerce had no specific reason to transit Moldova and the country existing in a small, tranquil corner of Europe that was largely ignored. Suffice to say that has changed and world events continue to put Moldova on the map - in ways both good and bad. I set out to make the case that Moldova Matters. That case has gotten easier to make over time, but this has only increased the urgency for solid understandings of how Moldova works. I’ve been proud to play some small part in filling that need.

Over the last year we’ve had some big changes with the newsletter. Last summer I launched a first season of the Moldova Matters podcast where, over 8 episodes, I experimented with a new format. I got great reader / listener feedback about what worked and what didn’t and I plan on continuing with the podcast with a new “season” this year. Just like last I hope to focus on bigger topics than the day to day news - the history of what got us here, economic trends, the nature of reforms and more. I want to put out episodes that don’t get stale as soon as the news cycle ends and I’m happy with how that worked out last year. If you haven’t listened to the episode on Transnistria you really should!

Another major change was conducting original investigations. As I’ve mentioned before this kind of content will be sporadic but (I suspect) will remain relevant as the world lurches into whatever this new crisis is. Doing this work has been *extremely* time consuming but it seemed to infuriate people who did not want their actions exposed so that was nice.

All in all it was another year of changes. I hope 2025 will also bring lots of positive changes and see Moldova Matters grow into a better, more sustainable project.

There’s that word “sustainable” - and yes, it is code for financially self sufficient. Over time lots of people have reached out to ask how they can support this project. I’ve put some thought into that question and have few more answers than I did before!

Subscribe - or Call me for Your Next Event!

First and foremost, if you haven’t already please become a paid subscriber. This newsletter takes quite a lot of work so if you find value in what you are reading consider becoming a supporter!

Looking beyond subscriptions, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that I do speaking events, consulting work and analysis / research work as well. I’ve decided to ad a “Contact” tab at the top of the webpage with information about this and how to get in touch. If you need an expert on Moldova for your next conference feel free to reach out!

Additionally, I’ve thought for a long while about advertising and sponsorships. This newsletter is never going to bombard readers with ads - so don’t worry about that. At the same time I know how extraordinarily difficult it is for me to reach new readers who are interested in Moldova. It’s a niche topic with people spread out all over the world. If there was a similar newsletter when I launched I would have been thrilled to pay for a sponsorship.

So I’m open to some end of email ads or discussions about sponsorships. I haven’t decided on whether or not to go down this road but I’m open to a conversation - if you or your organization is interested, reach out and we can talk.

If none of that appeals to you, you can always buy me a coffee (or a few)!

Buy me a Coffee

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me since the beginning and for all the new readers and friends I’ve met along the way. I’m always delighted that so many readers send me thoughtful, challenging questions and comments. Those of us interested in Moldovan politics and life, either for work or because we call this country home, are a small group. But my experience has been that this newsletter has grown into a great community of interest and I am thrilled to be part of it. Once again, Thank You - your support continues to make this newsletter possible and for that I’m incredibly grateful.

I’ve been pretty lucky not to have attracted the online ire of pro-Russian disinformation artists up until now but sadly this kind of thing isn’t really news. Moldovan journalists suffer much worse abuse on a daily basis. As such, I didn’t really think it needed an article in Moldova Matters but I thought I’d write a bit about the situation in my new Substack Out of Place, Out of Context which focuses on the (mis)adventures of living abroad.

Out of Place, Out of Context is generally a place for me to write and share my thoughts on the funnier aspects of making a home in a place and culture far from home. It’s not usually very news or politics focused and articles will mostly talk about culture, food and language. Check it out if you’re interested!

Here’s my article about how Tarlev’s people really don’t like me…

Out of Place, Out of Context

How if Feels to be Targeted by a Smear Campaign

Over this past weekend I had the interesting experience of finding myself the target of a pro-Russian disinformation campaign. While Out of Place, Out of Context is a brand new publication, I’m coming up on my 4 year anniversary of writing on Substack. In that time I’ve written…

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a year ago · David Smith