Marina Tauber is a Moldovan politician. Since 2019 she has been a Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. On 31 May 2023, the European Union levied sanctions against her, due to her relationship with the Russian government and because of her position in the pro-Russian turmoil in Moldova.
Tauber has spearheaded street demonstrations against Moldova’s pro-European administration in a movement that was part of a Moscow-backed action to destabilise the former Soviet republic. Marina Tauber entered the Șor Party – then the Social-political movement “Ravnopravie” – in June 2016. She became vice president of the group shortly after Ilan Shor’s election as the head of the political party.
The Şor party was sanctioned in October 2022 by the US for illegal interference in the electoral procedure and the promotion of the stakes of the Kremlin in the Republic of Moldova, and the government in Chisinau states that the formation would continue to seek the destabilization of the Republic of Moldova against the backdrop of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
On 13 April 2023, the Moldovan appeal court doubled the punishment of party President Ilan Shor in a case connected to the stealing of $1 billion in bank assets as well as money laundering, violation of trust, and fraud to 15 years in prison in absentia and froze his assets.
On 1 May 2023, the party’s Vice President, Marina Tauber, was imprisoned at the Chișinău International Airport while trying to escape the country for Israel via Turkey. She was apprehended by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office on accusations of illegally funding the party. In May 2023 an inquiry was launched into a supposed case of bribery of voters by the Șor Party during the 2023 Gagauz gubernatorial election.
Tauber has been under inquiry since 2022 in a case involving the illegal financing of the Shor Party, being charged with falsifying the financial information of the party and knowingly taking the financing of the party by an organized criminal group. She spent almost two months in detention: from July 23 to September 14, 2022. She was then put under house arrest and judicial control.
Marina Tauber, a defendant in criminal charges who is on the EU and US sanctions lists, has also accepted the Russian Order of Friendship from Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. The order was given to Tauber by Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the Russian State Duma. During the exhibition, he said that Tauber is a legislator who has done much “so that the relations of our countries grow, strengthen, and our links are even more effective.”
Tauber boasted about it on her Facebook page with a photo of the order in Moscow. “A momentous event in my life, which puts a lot of responsibility [on me] and once again proves that Russia has not turned its back on our country even after a series of conflicts and attempts by the official authorities to break all ties,” she stated.
