In Moldova, a group of MPs from the ruling ‘Action and Solidarity’ (PAS) party, led by Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu, has tabled a draft law introducing criminal liability for denying, justifying, condemning or condoning the 1946–1947 famine and the Stalinist deportations, according to NewsMaker.
The draft law ‘on the memory of the victims of the 1946–1947 famine and the deportations carried out by the Stalinist regime against the inhabitants of Moldova’ was registered on 26 June.
The authors of the amendments propose officially recognising the 1946–1947 famine as a crime against humanity committed by the Soviet totalitarian regime, as well as introducing criminal liability for publicly denying, justifying or downplaying the scale of this tragedy. The bill proposes imposing a prison sentence of between six months and five years for such actions.
In June 2025, Moldovan President Maia Sandu announced that around 20,000 files relating to the country’s deported residents had been transferred to the archives. “From July onwards, every family will finally be able to find and restore the names of those who were lost in the darkness of the dictatorship. Thanks to this transfer, all the files of people who suffered political repression during the communist regime are now gathered in one place – the National Archives,” she said.
On the night of 12–13 June 1941, Sandu recalled, Stalin’s first deportation began in Moldova: “The Soviets (representatives of the Soviet regime – ed.) destroyed lives, tore families apart and condemned innocent people to death,” emphasised the Moldovan leader. According to her, those deported lost everything they had built up over many years and were sent to forced-labour camps.