August 1991 — Moldova gains independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
December 1991 — Mircea Snegur gains the majority of votes and becomes the first president of Moldova after independence.
July 1992 — A cease-fire agreement is signed with the leaders of the separatist movement in the industrial territory to the east of the Dniester river with the support of Russia. The hostilities broke out when Trans-Dniester unilaterally declared independence from Moldova in 1990. The cease-fire agreement is still in effect because of deep differences between the breakaway Transnistria region and the government of Moldova. The two sides have yet to agree upon a final solution to the decades-long conflict.
July 1994 — The constitution is adopted.
July 1994 — Parliament grants autonomous status to the Turkic-language-speaking Gagauz region in the southwest of the country. The autonomous Gagauz administration has powers over its own political, economic and cultural affairs.
July 1995 — Moldova joins the Council of Europe.
December 1996 — Petru Lucinschi becomes the new president of the country after the elections.
January 1997 — Ion Ciubuc is appointed prime minister.
July 1998 — The EU/Moldova Partnership and Cooperation Agreement enter into force and the first Cooperation Council meeting is held. The objectives of this agreement are to promote trade, investment and harmonious economic relations between the European Union and Moldova, to provide a basis for legislative, economic, social, financial and cultural cooperation, and to support the efforts of Moldova to consolidate its democracy.
January 1999 — A judge in the Chisinau Economic Court is arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe to reduce a fine against a firm. He is sentenced to 10 years in prison.
February 1999 — Prime Minister Ciubuc announces his resignation amidst opposition from Parliament and the ruling coalition to his efforts to implement market reforms. A new coalition government is formed by Prime Minister Ion Sturza in March.
November 1999 — The government of Ion Sturza is dismissed by the Parliament as a result of a vote of no-confidence. The government is accused of corruption and mismanagement of the economy.
July 2000 — Parliament votes to amend the constitution to shift the administration of the country to a parliamentary republic, in which the president is elected by the Parliament instead of the public.
February 2001 — The Communist Party wins 71 out of 110 seats in the parliamentary elections. Elections are declared to be free and fair by international observers.
April 2001 — Vladimir Voronin is elected president by the Parliament.
2002 — The main government institution for fighting corruption, the Center for Fighting Economic Crimes and Corruption (CFECC), is created.
February 2002 — The State Anti-corruption Council, headed by President Voronin, accuses Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Cucu and Moldovan Ambassador to the United States Ceslav Ciobanu of lobbying for the Ribnita Steel Mill, located in the breakaway Transnistria region, which contributes more than 50 percent of the Transnistrian budget's revenue. The two officials are dismissed from government service.
June 2002 — The opposition Christian Democratic People's Party (CDPP) asks the prosecutor-general of Moldova to investigate the Russian Lukoil Company, which donated five million Moldovan lei (US$370,000) to the firm Metal Market for reconstruction of the Pushkin Museum in Chisinau. Opposition leader Iurie Rosca claims that the transaction is a hidden bribe to President Voronin, given to him through his son Oleg Voronin, the director of Metal Market.
November 2002 — Anatol Cuptov, the minister of Transportation and Communications, is accused of misappropriating public funds and engaging in illegal activities while working for the local government of Balti, and abusing his power in dealing with problems related to the Giurgiulesti oil terminal, located on the Danube river. Cuptov was appointed senior manager of the state enterprise "Giurgiulesti Commercial Port" via governmental resolution no. 1566, several weeks after being ousted.
October 2003 — Sergiu Afanasiu, the editor in chief at the weekly newspaper Accente, is arrested on charges of bribery. Police search the offices of Accente and confiscate $1,500 in cash, although they have neither an arrest nor a search warrant. Accente had published articles on corruption, tax evasion and other dishonest acts committed by high-ranking officials such as Security Service Director Ion Ursu, Interior Minister Gheorghe Papuc and Ambassador to the Russian Federation Vladimir Turcan.
November 2003 — Elections to the People's Assembly are held in the autonomous Gagauz region. The Communist Party and those loyal to it get the majority of seats. The Election Observation Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) concludes that the elections were conducted in line with international standards for transparency.
June 2004 — Alina Anghel, who had been writing on cases of governmental corruption for the weekly Timpul, is beaten by an unidentified assailant with an iron bar, who leaves her with head injuries and a broken arm.
Constantin Tanase, editor in chief of Timpul, declares that he thinks that the assault is connected with Anghel's investigative reports into the case of a luxury car given to Interior Minister Gheorghe Papuc and to the defamation case brought against the paper by the firm Daac-Hermes, which is the importer and distributor of Romanian automobiles in Moldova. Tanase claims that Anghel received a number of telephone threats since the January publication of an article titled "Luxury in the Land of Poverty," in which she revealed the existence of an agreement between the State Chancellery and Daac-Hermes involving luxury Skoda cars.
September 2004 —Moldova signs the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The convention has not yet been ratified.
January 2005 — A National Anti-corruption Strategy and the corresponding Action Plan are introduced. The Anti-corruption Strategy recognizes that corruption severely undermines the country's statehood by affecting all areas of public and private life. A monitoring group that will meet on a monthly basis is also established by a presidential decree to ensure the implementation of the action plan.
February 2005 — The European Union and the Moldavian government agree on a EU-Moldova Action Plan, a "roadmap" of reforms to strengthen the democratic and economic situation of the country and facilitate its Euro-Atlantic integration.
March 2005 — Elections for the seats of Parliament are held. The Communist Party receives 46.1 percent of the votes, or 56 seats in the 101-member Parliament.
March 2005 — Police arrest former Defense Minister Valeriu Pasat, supporter of the opposition Democratic Moldova bloc during the March 2005 election campaign, on allegations of pocketing US$10 million during the sale of 21 formerly-Soviet MiG-29 fighter jets to the U.S. in 1997. The Moldovan government received US$40 million in the deal. A court sentences him to 10 years in prison, which is later decreased to five years.
April 2005 — Parliament re-elects Vladimir Voronin as president. At the start of his second term, Voronin promises to focus on European integration and improve living standards and media freedom.
April 2005 — The Center for Combating Economic Crime and Corruption (CCECC) arrests Valeriu Mostovoi, a former deputy minister of Labor and Social Protection, on charges of extortion. A court finds him guilty of corruption and bans him from holding public office for five years.
May 2005 — Austrian authorities report the breakup of a human-trafficking ring led by Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian criminals, who smuggled more than 5,000 East Europeans to the West.
October 2005 — Victor Turcanu, president of Victoriabank (one of the largest banks in Moldova), who is accused of allegedly extorting a bribe of $15,000 in exchange for a sizable loan on privileged terms, is arrested. He is released after 10 days of interrogation.
October 2005 — Former secretary of the Chisinau City Council, Vladimir Sarban, is released from detention (where he was held since 2004 for alleged corruption) after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rules that the reasons given by the government for prolonging his detention are not relevant and sufficient.
October 2005 — The Parliament votes to lift the immunity from prosecution of Our Moldova Alliance (AMN — Alianta Moldova Noastra) opposition party leader Serafim Urechean and two of his colleagues, upon the request of the Prosecutor General's Office. They are accused of graft and corruption by the CCECC.
December 2005 — The European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) starts operating along Moldova's Ukrainian border to fight against smuggling, strengthen customs procedures and facilitate cross-border cooperation.
January 2006 — Russian gas supplier Gazprom cuts the gas supply to the country for 17 days when the government refused to pay twice the previous price. The two parties agree on a new price in July 2006 and Gazprom resumes supplying gas.
September 2006 — The Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCECC) arrests Eduard Musuc, the opposition Social Democrat Party of Moldova (PSDM) leader, on allegations of fiscal impropriety concerning a real-estate deal while he was the director of Megadat.com, which is a leading Internet provider. A court sets bail at sum of US$154,000.
November 2006 — The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an aid agency funded by the U.S. government, approves Moldova's US$24.7 million Threshold Country Plan to curb corruption.
Global Integrity uses a