An influencer says that education in other languages should only be private, and Russian propaganda presents this opinion as the Republic of Moldova's new state policy of banning the Russian language.
NEWS: It seems clear who and what the PAS authorities will now "fight" against.
Whereas previously the repression targeted regional leaders, mainly Russian speakers, in the new political cycle the target is Russian schools in Moldova.
One of the PAS activists, Marian Andoni, has already expressed what seems to be coming "from above": "We finance Russian-language schools and kindergartens from the taxes of all citizens. This should not be the case. They should switch to self-financing, and those who want to can even learn in Chinese. There should be only one official state language in Moldova—Romanian. No schools or kindergartens teaching in the language of another state."
In other words, the slogan is new, but the methods are old: instead of fighting corruption, they are fighting their own people.
NARRATIVES: 1. The government in Chișinău suppresses the opposition on linguistic grounds. 2. PAS is preparing to close Russian-language schools.
PURPOSE: To portray the Action and Solidarity Party and the Moldovan leadership as authoritarian and intolerant, discriminating against Russian speakers and limiting political pluralism, in order to undermine the pro-European image of the government and fuel inter-ethnic tensions; to cause panic and hostility among the Russian-speaking population.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The opinion of a person who, admittedly, is a supporter of PAS, is presented as state policy, which is false. This is not the first time that Russian and pro-Russian propaganda has claimed that schools in the Republic of Moldova are being closed on linguistic grounds – i.e. mainly those teaching in Russian – and Veridica has previously debunked such narratives. No government representative has announced any intention or plan to close Russian-language schools, which continue to be funded by the state and whose share reflects and even exceeds the percentage of native Russian speakers.
The claim that the government suppresses the opposition on ethnic/linguistic grounds is also false. It is true that some Russian-speaking politicians have criminal records, and the governor of Gagauzia, Evghenia Guțul, was convicted in a case involving the illegal financing of a political party. At the same time, there are also criminal cases against Romanian-speaking politicians. Those targeted are affiliated with the fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, who, from Moscow, attempted both in the 2024 elections and in the parliamentary elections of September 28, 2025, to undermine the country's European course and bring it back under the influence of the Kremlin.
Last but not least, the quote is taken out of context and truncated. The main message (which can be heard here) was that in the Republic of Moldova, all citizens must know Romanian, which is the official language, and the state should only finance teaching in the official language; there is no question of banning the use of other languages or teaching in other languages.
LOCAL CONTEXT/ ETHOS: During the Tsarist and, especially, Soviet occupation of the Republic of Moldova, Russian was widely spoken and enjoyed a privileged status. However, the number of Russian speakers has since declined significantly, and Russian has lost its privileged status as the language of power. According to the latest census, 80% of Moldovan citizens declared Romanian (Moldovan - a term left over from the period when Moldova was occupied by the Tsarist Empire and the USSR) as their mother tongue, an increase of almost 2 percentage points compared to the previous census in 2014. Russian was declared as their mother tongue by 11.6%, however, the number of those who usually speak it is higher - almost 16%.
In the Republic of Moldova, the number of students has halved since the beginning of the century – from 630,000 to approximately 330,000. During this period, the number of schools has decreased by approximately 20%. Both Romanian-language and Russian-language schools have been closed. Approximately 16% of schools teach in Russian, which corresponds to the share of national minorities.
