Russians in Moldova make up to more than 3% of population of the country (excluding Transnistria) according to 2024 Moldovan census.
The Russophone population is even larger, considering that many ethnic Ukrainians, Gagauz, and Bulgarians have Russian as a first language.
[5] The publishing works established by Archbishop Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni were able to produce books and liturgical works in Moldavian between 1815 and 1820,[6] until the period from 1871 to 1905, when Russification policies were implemented that phased out the public use of Romanian and replaced it with Russian.
Today, Russian has the status of a "language of interethnic communication", and since Soviet times remains widely used throughout the society and the government.
Pro-Russian parties in Moldova protested the ban on the nationalist symbols, accusing the Moldovan government of erasing their history.