Diplomacy, Shor's Aircraft Fleet and Updates on the Kuliok Case

Hello and welcome back to Moldova Matters! In a week of heavy snowfall over most of the country the news decided not to take any snow days. It’s a long roundup this week but there are lots of important stories and I really recommend reading till the end.

The Munich Security Conference

Compared to last year’s Munich Security Conference, the 2026 event was far less shocking to participants. Partly, that’s because US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech was far less abrasive1 than the one delivered last year by JD Vance. Partly, it’s because the shock of the recent Greenland Crisis has been internalized and it’s getting harder for the US to shock European leaders.

President Maia Sandu was one of the more than 50 heads of state and government attending the event. There she spoke on a panel about hybrid threats sharing Moldova’s experience and warning that hybrid attacks affect all countries now - big and small. On the sidelines of the event she gave an interview to Romanian Substack news platform Explicativ where she called out “cognitive warfare” as the most dangerous threat to democracies and highlighted the role and power of social media companies saying:

“The Republic of Moldova is too small a country to be able to impose rules on platforms. And platforms must have a degree of responsibility, because they decide which algorithms they use. These algorithms bring information to our screen thousands of times to form an opinion. But that is not freedom of expression,”

At the conference President Sandu had numerous bilateral meetings, including one with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Speaking about their discussion she said that she expressed gratitude to the United States for past an ongoing support - particularly in the field of energy projects. They also discussed American cybersecurity and defense support to the country.

Following the conference, Marco Rubio journeyed onward to directly involve the United States in Hungary’s elections where he spoke of a “golden era of relations between our countries” and told Viktor Orban that “President Trump is deeply committed to your success.”

Meanwhile, a Congressional Delegation (CODEL) of 4 Democratic Senators, Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) stopped in Chisinau on a tour of the region.

While in Chisinau the Senators met with President Sandu and Prime ...