MOSCOW, December 5, Mikhail Katkov. Chisinau is the next victim of the collective West after Kyiv, the Russian Foreign Ministry is confident. Over the past few months, the Moldovan authorities have made a series of decisions aimed at breaking off relations with Moscow. Why Maia Sandu's regime ignores Russian warnings — in the material .
Anti-Russian campaign Moldova supported four of the six packages of EU sanctions, almost 1,800 individuals were banned from travel and financial transactions, and their assets were frozen. Sandu submitted to parliament a draft national security strategy, in which Moscow is “the biggest threat,” and also demanded the withdrawal of military contingents from Transnistria. Russian media banned.
Former President of Moldova Igor Dodon
Former President of Moldova Igor Dodon believes that Sandu is leading the country along the path of Ukraine. Communist deputy Konstantin Starish emphasizes: Moldovan society, unlike the authorities, does not see Russia as an enemy. In his opinion, Chisinau needs a balanced, balanced foreign policy — good relations with both Moscow and the EU.
Former Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Filat believes that Sandu is being led by emotions. Its national security strategy does not clarify the future; it only records some moments from the past and present. And Moldova is threatened not by Russia, but by depopulation: people leave at the first opportunity.
Sandu doesn't listen to critics. She is passionate about Ukraine. In particular, on November 21, the so-called Day of Dignity and Freedom, she arrived in Kyiv to discuss regional security and accession to the European Union with Zelensky. A week later, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk visited Chisinau. He thanked the Moldovan people for their help in the fight against Russia, pointing out that Ukraine and Moldova should join the EU because they have always been part of European civilization.
Second in line, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is confident: Moldova is destined to be the next victim of the West in the hybrid war against Moscow. In particular, they are now pursuing the “5+2” format for the Transnistrian settlement, in which, in addition to the direct participants in the conflict, Russia, Ukraine, the OSCE, the European Union and the United States took part.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov
Official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova noted: “Following the Baltic states and Ukraine, official Chisinau has taken a course towards artificial de-Russification.” This will destroy another state under the guise of democratic reforms, she believes.
Moscow regarded Chisinau's accession to sanctions as «another hostile step.» The West is seeking a complete severance of relations between Moldova and Russia, Zakharova indicated. She explained the strengthening of anti-Russian rhetoric by Sandu's attempts to justify himself to Brussels for the lost local elections.
Participants of the rally on the Great National Assembly Square in Chisinau
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Against this background, Rosselkhoznadzor renewed the ban on the import of plant products from a number of regions of Moldova — due to the unfavorable phytosanitary situation, as the department clarifies. Inspectors constantly find quarantine objects in vegetables and fruits that can cause multi-billion dollar damage to Russian agriculture. Chisinau did not react to this in any way.
Secret of survival»In total Moldovan imports in 2022, Russia's share is 12.5%, for natural gas and fertilizers — 82.8 and 51.8%. For local suppliers of fruits and berries , pharmaceutical products are our most important market, 36.5 and 29.1% of exports, respectively,” said Anastasia Prikladova, associate professor of the department of international business at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.
Pipelines of the national gas distribution network in Moldova
The Sandu government made an anti-state decision by joining anti-Russian sanctions, the expert continues . Moldovan energy, agriculture and pharmaceuticals will suffer from this. Russia won’t even notice anything.
Moldovan political analyst Igor Tulyantsev also thinks so. “Sandu is not pursuing an anti-Russian, but an anti-Moldovan policy. Everything that has been happening in the last few years cannot be called democratic transformations. We thought good times would come, but it turned out that they have already passed,” he argues.
President of Moldova Maia Sandu at a rally in support of European integration on the Great National Assembly Square in Chisinau
Sandu is guided exclusively by personal political interests . It gains legitimacy in Western countries, and what is more important to it is what people say about it abroad, not at home. “He thinks that the more you argue with Russia, the more valuable you are to the EU and the USA,” the expert emphasizes. “However, even there they gradually understand that the Sandu regime is no different from its predecessors: the same corruption and discrediting of the European course. True, this is only encourages Sandu to quarrel even more with Moscow.»
The authorities have no alternative to the current strategy. Nobody thinks about the economic consequences or the military ones. Sandu expects that “abroad will help,” and meanwhile Moldova is increasingly approaching disaster.