Ilan Šor, Putin's Moldavian friend

Demonstrations against the government, which President Maia Sandu accuses of being directly inspired by the Kremlin, have been going on in Chisinau since September. With Moscow's rejection of gas, inflation in the country has reached 33%. A profile of the young Tel Aviv-born oligarch who with his own party from abroad (due to a conviction for fraud) pulls the strings of the opposition.

Chisinau (AsiaNews) - At a time of great internal conflict between political factions in Moldova, threatened by possible involvement in the Russian war in neighbouring Ukraine, the star of the most brazen pro-Russian, the volcanic Ilan Šor, founder of the party that bears his name "Šor", shows no sign of waning. Since September, the demonstrations against the government, which President Maia Sandu believes to be directly inspired by the Kremlin, have not stopped: they protest above all about the energy crisis, due to the rejection of Moscow gas.

Electricity prices for Moldovan citizens have risen more than sixfold, inflation has reached 33%, and these factors fuel the possibility for opposition politicians to ride out the crisis. It is precisely Šor who is considered the link to Russia, where he is well known as the husband of the singer Jasmine; he himself does not show up in his homeland, but is the main financier of the demonstrations. Sentenced to 15 years in prison for a billion-dollar scam taken out of Moldova, he is forced to live in Israel, from where he manoeuvres his many followers, many of whom are themselves under investigation.

Moldovan journalist and writer Paula Erisanu has reconstructed for Novaja Gazeta Evropa the biography of the Russophile populist, an excellent example of how the Kremlin uses its pawns in the internal political games of European countries.

Šor likes to appear on TV screens, which he has his henchmen carry on their shoulders, as well as on mobile phones, to announce that he will soon return to Moldova to free the people from 'Western dictatorship'.

Born in Tel-Aviv in 1987, he is the son of a Moldavian businessman, Miron, who initially worked in the Russian theatre 'Čechov' in Chişinău, then Kišinev, to emigrate to Israel in the 1970s, where along with business he also became interested in politics, representing the interests of Jews from the USSR.

The family returned to Moldova in the 1990s, and Miron Šor launched major fashion brands in his homeland, organising fashion shows and art exhibitions, and even opened a Moldovan section of the Rotary Club, always taking little Ilan with him.

When his father died prematurely in 2005, 18-year-old Ilan Šor took over all his businesses, and instead of carrying on with typical Miron discretion, he immediately started showing off his fortunes, becoming Moldova's most glamorous public figure.

Racing in his red Ferrari from one side of the country to the other, Ilan organised sensational parties everywhere, with swirls of dollars of very dubious origin and destination. In the capital's 'Flamingo' nightclub, he made the acquaintance of future Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat in 2008, and was drawn into the adventures of politics. His marriage to Russian star Jasmine, celebrated in the parliament building in Chişinău, made him a true celebrity in his homeland and in Russia, at only 24 years of age.

As the Moldovan government moved ever closer to Europe between 2009 and 2019, Šor and his friends organised one of the most dizzying rounds of corruption in the country's history, starting with the concession for the purchase of the capital's airport, and ending with the embezzlement of more than 12% of Moldova's GDP. The money taken abroad was compensated by a state debt, which Moldovan citizens will have to pay until 2041.

At the end of all the scheming, having achieved a dominant economic position, Šor decided to 'take the field' directly in politics, first as the leader of the Ravnopravie ('Justice and Law') party, later transformed into his own party, with the basic slogan that 'Moldova can only exist within the borders of Russia'. He became mayor of the small town of Orkhej, which he turned into a 'free zone' for business.

Finally convicted in 2017, after several other embezzlements, Šor fled illegally two years later, when Sandu's pro-Europeans had come to power. Since then he has been working from afar to bring down the current government, and bring Moldova back into the arms of his friend Putin.

• Moldova
• Russia
• Putin
• Ilan Šor
• Maia Sandu
• Chisinau