No, I am not indulging in my usual hyperbole. Today’s analysis comes from Deutsche Welle (link in Romanian), German state media.

On Tuesday, RM Prime Minister Filip “Mr. Midnight” Pavel gave a press conference saying that Moldova is 63% on track in terms of specific requirements that the Association Agreement requires for RM and that he expects his government to be caught up on the rest “in less than 30 days”.

But the article goes on to list the complete failure to introduce legislation to cover up gaping holes, especially in the banking sector, which is to blame for the theft of about a billion dollars last year. Furthermore, the prosecutor’s case concerning the theft is apparently “in a drawer” and not moving forward at the moment, mainly due to the fact that it will implicate oligarchs currently backing Filip.

But here’s the key graf (my translation):

Political analysts say that these gestures of RM fulfilling EU conditions and declaring that oligarchs will be reigned in is just because the government needs money. The leadership in Chisinau hopes these pro-EU declarations will… convince Romania to release the first tranche of its 150 million Euro credit which mandates [that Chisinau implement] reforms.

Gadzooks!

Meanwhile over in Lithuania, a high-ranking financial official named Kristaps Zakulis resigned after it was discovered that Lithuanian banks were involved in laundering the money from Moldova that someone (a group of pro-EU politicians) stole.

Sigh…