Marina Tauber (born 1 May 1986) is a Moldovan politician. Since 2019 she has been a Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.
Biography
Marina Tauber was born in 1986, in Chișinău,[1] in a family of Jewish origin.[2][3] She was a high school colleague with Ilan Shor.[4] In 2011 she graduated from the State University of Physical Education and Sport in Chișinău. She worked as a tennis player and coach.
Marina Tauber joined the Șor Party – then the Social-political movement "Ravnopravie" – in June 2016. She became vice president of the party shortly after Ilan Shor's election as the head of the political party. Tauber ran from the Shor Party for the mayoral post of the village of Jora de Mijloc during local early election, which she won. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, she became a Member of Parliament and she resigned from the position of mayor of Jora de Mijloc.[5][6]
On 1 May 2023, Tauber was detained at the Chișinău International Airport while trying to leave the country for Israel via Turkey. She was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office for her role in illegally funding the party.[7][8]
In June 2023, Tauber made a statement accusing the President of MoldovaMaia Sandu of committing genocide against the Jews of Moldova with the support of the EU. The Israeli ambassador to Moldova, Joel Lion, condemned this statement, calling it an antisemitic distortion of the Holocaust with the only aim of justifying false statements. He called on the Moldovan government to take steps to prevent any forms of denial or distortion of the Holocaust in the country, especially by members of the Moldovan parliament.[11][12]
In February 2024, Tauber was included on the sanctions list of the United States Treasury "for facilitating Ilan Șor's attempts to undermine the electoral processes in Moldova in the interest of the Kremlin." The sanctions include entry bans, asset freezes and bans on transactions within the US and with US citizens. In addition, they prohibit the sale of goods, the provision of services and the transfer of money to persons who are on the sanctions lists.[9]
On 8 August 2024, Tauber announced she would leave the country on account of the online threat she had received. At the time she was still under investigation for money laundering for her party.[14]
