{"id":5528,"date":"2026-05-08T16:27:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=5528"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:35:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:35:48","slug":"russian-banned-from-ex-soviet-states-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/russian-banned-from-ex-soviet-states-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian banned from ex-Soviet state\u2019s parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opposition has harshly criticized new language rules passed by Moldovan President Maia Sandu\u2019s pro-EU PAS party<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moldovan President Maia Sandu\u2019s pro-EU PAS party has pushed through new procedural rules that severely restrict the use of the Russian language in parliament.<\/p>\n

The ex-Soviet republic of around 2.5 million people sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine has charted an increasingly anti-Russian course since Sandu came to power in 2020.<\/p>\n

Under the new regulations adopted on Thursday, Romanian is declared to be the sole working language in the legislature. Bills will no longer be translated into Russian, which was previously designated as a language of inter-ethnic communication. The new rules also introduce time limits on lawmakers\u2019 addresses during plenary debates, as well as changes to voting procedures.<\/p>\n

The opposition lambasted the new Code of Parliament, with Communist Party MP Constantin Staris warning that it would undermine the legislature\u2019s legitimacy.<\/p>\n

Alexandru Versinin of the right-wing Democracy at Home party accused the ruling PAS of \u201cshutting our mouths,\u201d<\/em> citing the newly-placed restrictions on debates. The parliament\u2019s chair, Igor Grosu, responded by switching off the lawmaker\u2019s microphone.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
Ex-Soviet state gives opposition politician 19-year jail term<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Opposition MPs then staged a walk-out in protest.<\/p>\n

In October 2025, the Moldovan government adopted a new security strategy, identifying Russia as the main threat.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded by warning that the Moldovan leadership was \u201cmaking a grave mistake\u201d<\/em> by increasingly antagonizing Russia.<\/p>\n

Last September, the pro-EU PAS party narrowly secured a majority in parliamentary elections, which saw claims of irregularities and manipulation.<\/p>\n

Critics bemoaned uneven access to voting: only two polling stations were opened in Russia, despite the country hosting one of the largest Moldovan diaspora communities in the world of up to 500,000 people. By contrast, dozens of polling stations were opened in Italy alone \u2013 where the Moldovan diaspora tends to be more pro-EU.<\/p>\n

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov characterized the vote as a \u201cfraud.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Ex-Moldovan President Igor Dodon, the leader of the Party of Socialists, similarly alleged that the \u201cruling Party of Action and Solidarity has claimed victory in the election exclusively by manipulation with support from the EU and NATO.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He further claimed that the West was aiming to turn the country into an \u201canti-Russian project\u201d<\/em> like Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opposition has harshly criticized new language rules passed by Moldovan President Maia Sandu\u2019s pro-EU PAS party Moldovan President Maia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5528"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5532,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5528\/revisions\/5532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}