This is how Russia sees things. I'd wager that Europe is mostly waking up to it as well. I wonder how most Americans understand what is happening in the world right now?
David Smith retweeted
In A7’s promotional video for USDT→SWIFT, Shor boasted that AI processes 2000 transactions daily.
As of mid-2025, A7 was using US-based frontier llms to process transactions. For more on that check out my earlier findings
Chat-KGB over on substack: evidenceofabsence.substack.c…
The EU opened 2 more doors for Moldova this week. In parallel, Trump’s actions caused Zelensky to suggest the US is on the “wrong side.” These developments risk an even more challenging winter in Ukraine and Moldova.
Part 2 of the Weekly Roundup:
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
A Moldovan high-voltage line now has Donald Trump’s name on it.
Also this week: Moldova’s 32 districts are being replaced by 3 regions, and PAS lost its Chisinau mayoral candidate
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
The US ambassador at the Moldova Security Forum: “we know who our adversaries are.” He never named them.
In a later panel, Moldova’s former PM did: “it is Russia.”
My reflections on MSF and a US partner that left the room unsure where it stands
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
David Smith retweeted
Great piece on #CZCB, an institution I’ve referenced a few times over on substack. The prevalence of CZCB in the #A7 data should show that our current approach to correspondent banking is broken
nytimes.com/2026/10/09/busin…
5 Russian drones and missiles. 15 minutes. 4 districts.
All exploded near populated areas in Moldova, and the debris points to a munition the country had not seen before: the S8000 Banderol.
This week's short roundup:
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
Thanks to Adam Reichardt for inviting me on New Eastern Europe's "Talk Eastern Europe" podcast to discuss the latest updates from Moldova. Check it out to hear about EU accession, my take on talk of union with Romania and updates on Transnistria.
youtube.com/watch?v=7HupaWRS…
David Smith retweeted
For God’s sake — everyone is constantly attacking Russia, endlessly putting it on the verge of conquest and the loss of its sovereignty, so that it is simply forced to conduct “special military operations” to destroy and occupy countries and peoples along its borders.
First Moldova, then Georgia (repeatedly!), then tiny Ichkeria simply put a knife to the Kremlin’s throat, then Ukraine, paralyzed by revolution and chaos, with its army long since fallen apart.
And now such notorious, hardened aggressors as the Baltic states, with their combined population equal to that of a single Moscow district, are just about to bare their fangs and strip Russia of its sovereignty.
And then there are the Western Europeans, with their millions-strong iron divisions, preparing to conquer Kaliningrad as soon as the fiesta is over and they’ve finished celebrating Oktoberfest.
America is a more interesting case: we are ordered to forget about America and its everlasting treacherous plans to force Russia into aggressions all around.
Not the “world’s 2nd greatest military,” with enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire world several times over, but a groaning victim in the clutches of eternal Ukrainian-Baltic imperialism, for God’s sake!
Of course Russian statehood simply couldn’t survive if it hadn’t piled up half a million corpses for the ruins of Donbas, and if it weren’t still searching for even more bloodshed against the West.
Drones overhead. Water running low. Gas prices up 81% in two months.
Moldova heads into winter with all three crises at once. This week's Moldova Matters has the full rundown
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
Moldova's National Wine Day turns 25 this weekend!
Oct 3-4 in Chișinău: 110+ wineries, a world-record human grapevine attempt, and Zdob și Zdub live.
Plus City Day, opera, theater and more. Your October guide:
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
16 drone crashes with explosions or fires in Moldova in August and September alone. One hit just outside Chișinău.
Also - Prime Minister Tofan calls for a 60-day energy emergency as Moldova faces a “perfect storm.”
This week's Moldova Matters:
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
The NYT's Moldova photo essay called an elected official "a teacher," styled a fashion designer and a film student to look like Soviet factory workers, and opened with "gray" to describe the sunniest month Chisinau had all year.
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
Russian drones just struck a Moldova-Ukraine border crossing. 2 dead, more injured - including a Moldovan bus driver.
Hours earlier, a missile drone flew over Moldova into Romania and back before crashing.
moldovamatters.md/p/deadly-d…
David Smith retweeted
Zelensky in Chisinau tonight:
“Moldova has been through a lot over these 35 years. And you have shown that Moldova is a strong nation. You are a great people — a European nation. And I’m absolutely sure that united, we will all be part of Europe – Europe that is free and peaceful.
This is a great day for your nation! I am proud to be here. Ukraine loves Moldova! We respect your country, respect your people, respect your independence. And we want to live in dignity, in our own countries. We wish you only peace. Peace, and victory.”
A major increase of Russian drone incursions, Mayor Ceban injured himself somewhere and somehow but isn’t sharing more - and Gagauzia will finally elect a new Bashkan. All this and more in the Weekly Roundup.
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
For 20 years, people have said the Cobasna ammunition depot in Transnistria could explode with the force of the Hiroshima bomb.
Today, Moldova's government released a new report challenging that claim directly.
I spent weeks checking it myself. Thread 🧵
Part 1: the history. How a Soviet Cold War arsenal became the most feared, least understood site in Moldova - and the 20-year chain of myths that grew around it.
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
Part 2: A new report puctures the myth. I checked the math and while Cobasna is dangerous - it isn't and never was Hiroshima. Stories about leveled towns and cities are not and never were credible.
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…
A Russian jet-powered "missile-drone" just crashed on Moldovan soil for the first time.
Also in the roundup: a fugitive Polish ex-minister possibly hiding in Transnistria, falling Dniester water levels and a military parade for Independence Day .
open.substack.com/pub/moldov…




















