In the same way as in Ukraine, there are between those who want to link to Europe and those who look at Moscow. Moldova goes to election Sunday.
“Europe cannot afford to lose Moldova as well,” Volodyymyr Zelenskyj said in the UN this week.
The president of neighboring Ukraine knows what he is talking about after more than ten years of Russian invasion.
In Norway, Moldova is probably best known because their football team recently lost 11-1 to Norway in the World Cup qualification, but on Sunday there are parliamentary elections in one of Europe’s poorest countries, with less than one tenth of Norway BNP to happen.
Moldova is a kind of strategic front line in the hybrid war Vladimir Putin leads to Europe. The fear of war is naturally great. And Moldova probably has even greater reason to feel threatened than, for example, Poland and the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all of whom are members of NATO. It’s not Moldova.
Putin knows how to exploit the tensions already in the country, between Romanian-speaking and Russian-language, between EU supporters and Soviet nostalgicsbetween the EU-friendly capital Chisinau and the rest of the country, where the standard of living is among the lowest in Europe and where many support Russia. Price shock on energy and increased skepticism about the EU has characterized the last couple of years.
Ever since the early 1990s, Russian soldiers have occupied-officially a peace force-the eastern part of the country, Transnistria. It is a popular tourist destination, as the narrow land strip is almost like a Soviet museum to count on Lenin statues, roads named after Soviet leaders and a separate flag with hammer, sickle and red star, such as the old Soviet flag.
It’s like traveling many decades back in time.
Haaland ravaged Moldova:
But the Russians also make their mark in the rest of the country. Russian money flows in. They are used to finance disinformation and propaganda, which we see so many other places. According to the west -friendly authorities, ordinary citizens are also paid to go on protest trains against the sitting government and to vote for a Prorussian candidate in the September 28 election.
Therefore, two Prorussian parties are banned by the Election Commission – and it can be a very hot election day. One of these parties has fully offered people NOK 30,000 a month to participate in protests against the government. Just hope the choice will go calm.
Moldova’s pro -European President Maia Sandu warns against the Russian interference. She claims that the Kremlin spends hundreds of millions of US dollars to get “the right” result in the election.
Earlier this week, there were nationwide raids where 74 people were arrested, accused of planning mass riots in the country. The authorities claim that Russia should destabilize the country with the help of criminal groups. The leader of the Prorussian patriotic election block claims that there is an attempt to scare people from voting on them.
At the presidential election last year, the Russians failed, and Sandu was elected president. Now Moscow should be even more active, we believe Sandu and her people.
– The Kremlin thinks we are all for sale, she says.
The key can be the many Moldovers who live abroad. But Moscow has also realized it and hunting for the 25-50 percent who are staying outside Moldova’s boundaries to get them to vote “right”. In total, the country has 3.6 million inhabitants.
A large part of the present Moldova was a province of the Russian Empire from 1812 and was then united with Romania in 1918 after World War I. This area was then incorporated into the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Moldova has been independent from the Soviet Union since 1991.
Vladimir Putin has called the Soviet Union’s collapse “the 20th century’s largest Geopolitical Disaster ”, the invasions in Georgia and Ukraine have been attempts to get some of the area back in the fold.
Zelenskyj believes it can be expensive in the future if the EU does not support Moldova and create stability in the country.
The election in Moldova is a struggle between those who want to link the country closer to Europe and become an EU member, and those who want Russian influence.
