Moldova's Constitutional Court has declared the pro-Russian Shor party "unconstitutional" and has dissolved it amid moves by the impoverished former Soviet republic to escape Moscow's orbit.
"The Ministry of Justice will appoint a commission for the liquidation of the Shor Party, which will undertake all the necessary measures for the liquidation and deletion of this party from the state register of legal entities," the president of the Constitutional Court, Nicolae Rosca, said in handing down its ruling on June 19.
He added that representatives of the party in parliament will continue to exercise their mandates, but as independent deputies without the right to affiliate with other parliamentary factions.
Party representative Marina Tauber called the ruling "shameful and unprecedented."
The party, whose leader, Ilan Shor, is a fugitive Moldovan oligarch implicated in a $1 billion bank fraud and other illicit schemes, has organized months of anti-government protests with the aim of toppling President Maia Sandu and a newly appointed Western-leaning government earlier this year.
Tensions between Chisinau and Moscow have ramped up since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, with fears that Russia could expand the war to Moldova, where up to 1,500 Russian troops are based in the breakaway pro-Moscow Transdniester region.
The Moldovan government has been critical of Russian aggression in Ukraine, with Sandu saying in May 2022 that Crimea, the Donbas, and Kyiv are all part of Ukraine.
Moldova was granted EU candidate status in June 2022 and while the country currently is not aiming to join the NATO military alliance, as neutrality is enshrined in its constitution, Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said in November 2022 that that didn't have to translate into self-isolation, demilitarization, or indifference toward world affairs.
In February, Sandu announced that the Kremlin was planning a coup in her country, claiming that Ukrainian intelligence had flagged details of an alleged plot, accusations that the Kremlin denied.
Earlier this month, the United States imposed sanctions on seven members of a group linked to Shor for their role in Moscow's campaign to destabilize Moldova and instigate an insurrection.
An appeals court in Chisinau on April 14 rejected an appeal by Shor in his case and instead doubled his original sentence to 15 years. Shor, who fled the country while under house arrest pending the appeal, currently lives in Israel, RFE/RL reports.
