US Treasury blacklists seven individuals linked to Ilan Shor and his party’s anti-government protests in Moldova

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has blacklisted seven individuals linked to sanctioned Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, who fled Moldova in 2019 to avoid corruption charges and has since lived in Israel, where he was born. The 36-year-old Shor is also the leader of the Moscow-friendly Shor Party of Moldova.

Shor’s party has repeatedly organized anti-government protests since last fall.

The protesters have demanded that the government fully subsidize citizens’ bills for the energy consumed in winter and “do not involve the country in a war”. They have also called on the President of Moldova, Maia Sanda, to resign.

“These individuals are part of Russia’s global intelligence operations, which also target the United States, the European Union, Great Britain and the Balkans,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement on Monday. “These destabilizing operations aim to weaken support for democratic governments and principles,” the statement said.

In February, Sandu accused Moscow of planning to use the protests to incite unrest to topple her government. Although Moscow denied the allegations, US intelligence agencies later expressed similar concerns.