CHISINAU -- Moldova is "accelerating work" to comply with EU sanctions against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a government spokesman said on February 2, a day after an RFE/RL investigation showed Moldovan firms have continued to supply airplane parts to Russian airlines and companies.
"In order not to allow evasion of international sanctions to which our country has joined, the government has accelerated work on the observance of sectorial sanctions and will continue to do so in the future," Daniel Voda wrote on Telegram.
His comments come a day after an investigation by RFE/RL's Moldovan Service found that three Moldovan-based companies had brokered airplane-parts sales worth more than $15 million to Russian firms in 2022-23.
The sales did not violate Moldovan law but were made after Brussels adopted sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In June 2022, Moldova was granted official candidate status for EU membership. Those aspirations were further buoyed in December 2023, when Brussels said it would open accession negotiations for Moldova to the 27-member bloc, alongside Ukraine. In November, Chisinau joined EU sanctions against Russia.
An EU spokesman told RFE/RL that it was concerned by reports of sanctions evasion and that Moldova should take action.
In the aftermath of its invasion, Russia's aviation industry has been subject to strict international sanctions.
SEE ALSO: How A Russian Fighter-Jet Manufacturer Continued To Import Western Aviation Parts Despite SanctionsDespite those sanctions, Russian airlines have managed to import some $1.2 billion worth of parts for Airbus and Boeing aircraft since May 2022, according to a Reuters report from August 2023.
The Moldovan companies in question denied selling to Russian firms, claiming instead that contracts were signed with companies in other, unspecified countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a Moscow-led grouping of former Soviet republics.
However, documents seen by RFE/RL's Moldovan Service suggest otherwise.
Data from Russia's Customs Service examined by RFE/RL show that transactions through Moldovan companies began a few months after the start of the invasion.
The Moldovan companies named in those documents were Airrock Solutions, Aerostage Services, and Maxjet Service.
Airrock Solutions and Aerostage were founded in November 2021 and April 2022, respectively, and are owned by Ivan Melnikov, a former top official of the Moldovan airline, Air Moldova. Maxjet, founded in 2011, is owned by Sergei Ranga.
Among the Russian airlines mentioned in the documents was Pobeda, a Russian low-cost airline, and S7 Group, which owns S7 Airlines.
Both Melnikov and Ranga told RFE/RL that they did not know the parts purchased by their companies were destined for Russia, saying they did not have direct contracts with Russian customers.
EU spokesman Peter Stano told RFE/RL that Russia's circumvention of sanctions through third countries was a matter of "great concern" for the EU.
Stano said Moldova had already made "considerable progress" to align with EU sanctions actions against Russia, but he added that Chisinau "must" take measures in relation to "questions regarding the alleged deliveries to Russia of some components by Moldovan companies."