TBILISI, April 9 – Moldova has moved into the final phase of leaving the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), after President Maia Sandu signed decrees denouncing the founding agreements of the bloc, according to local outlet Newsmaker.
The decrees signed by Sandu took effect on April 8, marking the final stage of Moldova’s withdrawal from the CIS. The bloc, formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, linked several former Soviet republics through a loose cooperation.
Under the CIS charter, a member state has the right to leave the organization, but must notify the organization in writing 12 months in advance. The presidential sign-off came just days after Moldova’s parliament backed the exit. Last week, lawmakers approved the denunciation of the agreement on the creation of the CIS, its protocol and its charter in the final reading.
The decision to press ahead with the country’s institutional break from the post-Soviet body represents a strategic win for Brussels but will be controversial among sections of a population that for years have sat between rival pulls from the West on the one hand and Moscow on the other. The European Union (EU) has steadily drawn the country closer, granting it candidate status in 2022 and formally opening accession negotiations in 2024.
Meanwhile, Russia has kept influence through political allies, energy leverage and its role in Transnistria, the Moscow-backed breakaway region on Moldova’s eastern edge, where Russian troops and ammunition remain despite repeated calls from the EU for their withdrawal. Gagauzia, an autonomous region at odds with Chisinau, is also wooed by Moscow.
The country’s domestic politics have been split between a pro-EU camp and a Russian-leaning camp, a divide apparent in the 2024 constitutional referendum on EU accession, which passed by a razor-thin margin, and in Sandu’s closely fought 2024 re-election against a rival backed by the traditionally pro-Russian Socialist Party. Sandu’s position was secured through a broad anti-Socialist and pro-EU vote around a goal of keeping Moldova on a westward path.
