The prime minister of Moldova has announced his resignation, after prosecutors he had accused of dragging their heels over a banking scandal said they were opening a case against him for alleged forgery of his school diploma.

Chiril Gaburici, 38, who had only been in the post since February, said he did not want to play “political games”.

Claims that he may have faked school-leaving certificates to get into university are not new.

The official investigation however comes in the same week that he called on the state prosecutor and head of the central bank to quit, for failing to shed light on the disappearance of $1 billion (887 million euros) from the country’s banks.

The missing cash, worth an eighth of annual GDP, has caused widespread anger in the ex-Soviet country which is one of Europe’s poorest.