Moldova Wants Israel to Extradite This Politician. The U.S. and Russia Are Watching
Ilan
Shor, a dual Israeli-Moldovan citizen and the target of U.S. sanctions,
is leading a campaign against Moldova's pro-Western government from a
safe haven in Israel. Larger global interests are at stake
The government of Moldova has asked Israel several times in recent years to extradite a Moldovan-Israeli politician whom the United States has accused of corrupting Moldova’s political and economic institutions on behalf of Russia.
Moldova wants Jerusalem to extradite Ilan Shor (aka Șor), the 35-year-old oligarch-turned-politician who fled to Israel in 2019 after being convicted of fraud in connection with the alleged theft of $1 billion from local banks.
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The initial extradition request was made in March 2020, according to Moldovan ambassador to Israel Alexandr Roitman. Subsequent requests were submitted in September and December 2021. Israel does not have an extradition treaty with Moldova, which means Israel has no legal obligation to return Shor.
The two countries’ justice ministries have “opened a dialogue on this issue,” Roitman told Haaretz. He described Shor as “trying to destabilize the political situation” in Moldova. “It is our hope that this request will be treated expeditiously,” he said. He declined to answer directly when asked if he was disappointed by Israel’s apparent lack of action.
Born in Tel Aviv to Moldovan immigrants who returned to their homeland when he was a toddler, Shor has been a major economic and political force in the former Soviet republic of some 3 million people.
His arrest in 2015 for money laundering and embezzlement was related to the 2014 theft of $1 billion from three Moldovan banks. It was the start of a major political and legal saga that still haunts the country.
Shor was convicted of fraud in 2017. However, he managed to delay a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence after appealing his conviction and running for political office. In 2015 he became mayor of one of Moldova’s largest cities, Orehi. His next move was to establish a new political party, Shor, and run for parliament in February 2019. He became a lawmaker as his party won seven seats.
However, that election also led to the appointment of pro-Western politician Maia Sandu as Moldova’s prime minister.
Roitman said Shor fled right after his country’s new, pro-Western parliament had been sworn in, and that there had been no time for the incoming government to take any action regarding his parliamentary status.
Shor has been accused by both the Moldovan and U.S. governments of leading a political campaign, from the safe haven of Israel, against the government in Chișinău and in favor of pro-Russian forces in Moldovan politics.
The New York Times reported last month that Shor’s party was behind a wave of demonstrations against Sandu, who is now Moldova’s president. He was described as “working to turn an energy crisis into a political crisis that threatens the government.”
The article added that Shor was directing the protests against Sandu “from his refuge in Israel,” and that he “finances the demonstrations and speaks by video link to each gathering chanting for Ms. Sandu’s removal.”
Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu told the Times that Shor’s party openly supports Russia and is trying to undermine the pro-Western government. President Vladimir Putin has long seen Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, as part of Russia’s sphere of influence.
Moldova shares borders with Ukraine – which has been at war with Russia since last February – and Romania, which is a member of NATO. Shor has blamed the country’s current energy crisis and high inflation on Sandu’s opposition to Putin’s invasion.
Paid protesters
Russia has long maintained “vast networks of operators of political influence” in the region, said Anton Shekhovtsov, director of the Vienna-based Centre for Democratic Integrity. He added that “most of these networks are driven by business interests and, to a lesser extent, also political ones.”
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, which sanctioned Shor last October, the oligarch has “received Russian support and the Shor party was coordinating with representatives of other oligarchs to create political unrest in Moldova.” This was part of Moscow’s efforts to “undermine Moldovan President Maia Sandu and return Moldova to Russia’s sphere of influence,” it added.
As part of this effort – which The Washington Post reported as being undertaken in collaboration with the Russian FSB intelligence service – several television networks owned or closely tied to Shor have broadcast what Moldovan authorities have characterized as “incorrect information” about the country and Russia’s war in Ukraine. This led to a temporary ban on their operations late last year.
Ambassador Roitman said that the protests Shor is promoting touch on real problems, since “the economic situation worldwide has worsened.” However, he noted that local media investigations have shown that some of those attending received payment for participating.
Moscow’s work with local politicians and business leaders like Shor is a significant concern for countries across the region. According to Romania’s ambassador to Israel, Radu Ioanid, “Since the start of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, and even before that, we have seen how Russia has deployed subversive and destabilizing measures in Europe – particularly in Eastern European countries.”
He continued: “Romania continues to be concerned about Russia’s destabilizing actions, and we have warned for a long time now about the risks and impact of these subversive attacks in our countries.”
Ioanid said his country “appreciate[s] the fact that Israel has expressed its commitment not to be a safe haven for bypassing sanctions.” This is a reference to then-Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s statement last March that “Israel will not be a route to bypass sanctions imposed on Russia by the West.”
However, Israel does not appear to have taken any steps to accede to Moldova’s requests re Shor – not publicly at least.
Last month, Moldovan Justice Minister Sergiu Litvinenco posted on Facebook that he had been informed by Israeli authorities that “Shor’s accounts in Israel have been blocked … in accordance with the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and based on the intervention of the authorities of Moldova in addition to the authorities of the State of Israel.”
Shor responded on Facebook that he had no accounts in Israel.
Asked about Litvinenco’s claim, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that “freezing of accounts is a measure taken by banks, not by the government.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli Justice Ministry, meanwhile, said that as “a matter of policy, we cannot comment on inquiries relating to extradition matters – other than in cases where a petition has already been submitted to court and the proceedings have been made public.”
Haaretz reached out to Shor for comment both via his official Facebook page and through a Shor party spokeswoman via email. It did not receive a response prior to press time.
Meanwhile, back in Moldova, members of the local Jewish community have contrasted Shor’s lack of involvement in local Jewish causes with his flight to Israel.
Evgheni Bric, director of Moldova’s Judaica Institute, told JTA in 2019 that the joke among local Jews was that the only time Shor remembered he was Jewish was “when he fled to Israel to avoid prison.”
JTA and Reuters contributed to this report.