DISINFO: Moldova gets rid of everything Russian
SUMMARY
Schools, TV channels: Moldova gets rid of everything Russian.
But the bans are likely to affect not only TV channels broadcasting in Russian. Maia Sandu, on the air of one of the TV channels, said that concerts in Moldovan cities, where children performed Soviet songs in Soviet uniforms, should be studied by the Information and Security Service for risks to the country's security.
At the same time, Finance Minister Dmitry Budyansky, when asked by a deputy about the underfunding of Russian-language schools, advised them to switch to Romanian. In the republic, they started talking about the upcoming closure of Russian schools.
RESPONSE
This claim appeared after the decision of the Moldovan Government to suspend the licenses of 6 TV stations, considered by the Commission for Emergency Situations as dangerous to state security because of their transmission of propaganda and disinformation and not working as proper media according to journalistic standards. All these channels retranslated a big part of their content from Russian channels controlled by the Government.
The claim in the article does not correspond to the truth. The licenses of these stations were stopped only during the exceptional situation in force in Moldova due to the war in Ukraine. They were not intended only for Russians, but also had many shows and news in Romanian, as required by the legislation of the Republic of Moldova. The representation of this action as Russophobia instigated by the West is part of the pro-Kremlin narrative, according to which Russians and the Russian language are persecuted in states with a pro-European leadership. In the Republic of Moldova, there are still TV stations that transmit content in Russian, either partially or fully, and they have not been closed.
No evidence is given for the claim about the future closure of Russian schools in Moldova. At the moment, there is no draft law or decision that would provide for the closure of any school on the agenda of the authorities.
See here a similar case claiming that Moldova received an external political order to suspend the Russian TV channels.