DOLAR
34,3826
EURO
36,8470
ALTIN
2.970,27
BIST
9.184,82
Adana Adıyaman Afyon Ağrı Aksaray Amasya Ankara Antalya Ardahan Artvin Aydın Balıkesir Bartın Batman Bayburt Bilecik Bingöl Bitlis Bolu Burdur Bursa Çanakkale Çankırı Çorum Denizli Diyarbakır Düzce Edirne Elazığ Erzincan Erzurum Eskişehir Gaziantep Giresun Gümüşhane Hakkari Hatay Iğdır Isparta İstanbul İzmir K.Maraş Karabük Karaman Kars Kastamonu Kayseri Kırıkkale Kırklareli Kırşehir Kilis Kocaeli Konya Kütahya Malatya Manisa Mardin Mersin Muğla Muş Nevşehir Niğde Ordu Osmaniye Rize Sakarya Samsun Siirt Sinop Sivas Şanlıurfa Şırnak Tekirdağ Tokat Trabzon Tunceli Uşak Van Yalova Yozgat Zonguldak
İstanbul
Hafif Yağmurlu
13°C
İstanbul
13°C
Hafif Yağmurlu
Pazar Hafif Yağmurlu
17°C
Pazartesi Hafif Yağmurlu
17°C
Salı Çok Bulutlu
18°C
Çarşamba Hafif Yağmurlu
16°C
SON DAKİKA
19:12 Ekrem İmamoğlu: İbb Olarak İstanbul Halkı Adına, Tbb Olarak Türkiye’deki Yerel Yönetimler Adına, Deprem Şehirlerinin Yanında Olmaya Kararlıyız.
19:06 Türkiye Veteran Voleybol Turnuvası Başladı
19:02 Corendon Airlines, Onvo Antalyaspor-Sipay Bodrum Fk Maçında Taraftarlara Sürpriz Boarding Deneyimi Yaşattı
19:00 Lösev 26. Kuruluş Yıldönümünü Coşkuyla Kutladı
18:58 Uluslararası Bilim Forumu Tamamlandı
18:56 Başkan Büyükakın’dan 10 Kasım Mesajı
18:54 Kemer’de Korkutan Yangın
18:52 Bakırköylü Minikler Atasını Andı
18:50 Büyükşehirden Tip 1 Diyabet Hastalarına Destek
18:44 Kemalpaşa Belediye Başkanı Mehmet Türkmen, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin Kurucusu Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ün Aramızdan Ayrılışının 86’Ncı Yılı Dolayısıyla Bir Mesaj Yayımladı.
18:42 Temad Tam Kadro Başkan Helil Kınay’ı Ziyaret Etti
18:38 Y. Kaptan Akarca Köprüsü Vatandaşın Hizmetinde
18:36 Nilüfer’de Okul Kantinlerine ‘Hijyen’ Teftişi
18:34 Bebeklere “Hoş Geldin” Armağanı Çankaya’dan
18:32 Doğançaylı Arıcılar İstedi Başkan Tugay Talimatı Verdi Yanan Araziler Bal Ormanıyla Küllerinden Doğuyor
18:26 Geleceğin Anneleri Mutfakta Becerilerini Sergiledi
18:12 Başkan Tugay: İlkelerine Bağlılığımız Sonsuza Dek Var Olacaktır
18:10 İzmir’in Yarım Asırlık Vizyonu İçin İlk Buluşma “Bıraktığımız İz Sadece Karbon Ayak İzimiz Olmasın”
18:08 İlk Günkü Hüzün Ve Hasretle Anıyoruz
18:06 Başkan Çerçioğlu: Atamızı Saygıyla Anıyoruz
TÜMÜNÜ GÖSTER →

Moldova is bravely standing up to Russia. This could be one of Europe’s success stories

Russia has blackmailed the eastern European country of 2.6 million for over three decades. Now, Chișinău’s pro-European turn should be greeted with enthusiasm, security expert Claudiu Degeratu argues.

Moldova is bravely standing up to Russia. This could be one of Europe’s success stories
06.02.2023 19:30
A+
A-

A miracle is about to happen in Moldova. The former Soviet republic, today a candidate country for European Union membership, is about to fully break from Moscow’s grasp and redefine its strategic identity in challenging times.

Despite the Kremlin’s not-so-veiled threats of expanding its aggression against Ukraine to the eastern European country of 2.6 million people, Chișinău has remained unmoved, surprising many. 

Yet, after all, Moldovans have been acutely aware of Moscow’s malignant behaviour ever since the 1992 war in Transnistria brought on a new invention in terms of Russia’s control in the post-Soviet space.

A frozen conflict in a grey, militarily controlled breakaway area within the territory of a state forcing it to declare itself as neutral allowed Russia to maintain a foothold further westwards in Europe for more than three decades. 

Despite that, except for Romania, Poland and the Baltic countries, the rest of the Europeans — if and when they paid attention to Moldova — saw the situation there as stable. Complicated, but stable.

And so, for decades, nothing seemed to impose Moldova on the European agenda, an issue that could be at least partially explained by the stereotypical attitude towards the former republics of the Soviet Union.

Then the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 changed everything.

Moldova’s neutrality: Moscow’s gilded cage

Russia’s war in Ukraine is, in many ways, also about the Republic of Moldova. In 2014, Moscow’s designs were not so evident because Russian military aggression in the Donbas and Crimea had the element of surprise. Kyiv’s forces were quickly defeated, and the active military phase ended promptly.

Just like in Chișinău, the political elites in Kyiv did not prepare for war at the time and had no plans to defend against Russia, forcing Ukraine to a stalemate, an echo of Moldova’s political and military neutrality. 

The illegally annexed territories were quickly militarised, following the same blueprint. For decades, thousands of Russian soldiers in Transnistria — officially on a “peacekeeping” mission — were there to remind everyone what would happen if the country’s leaders were to change their minds or earlier agreements or fight back.

Last year’s all-out war of aggression, however, made Russia a pariah and emboldened the likes of Moldova enough to distance itself away from Moscow.

This led to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov menacing Chișinău in recent days and labelling it as the West’s new “anti-Russian project“. 

Moldova Is Bravely Standing Up To Russia. This Could Be One Of Europe'S Success Stories
Soldiers of the Transnistrian Army are holding red flags during the Victory Day parade in Tiraspol, Transnistria, in 2005.

The eternal head of Russian diplomacy was probably spurred on by the prospect that Moscow would permanently lose its ability to blackmail it on matters such as domestic and foreign policy, energy, and economic assistance.

For years, Moscow behaved like a demanding, brash teacher on the topics of neutrality for countries like Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, and Lavrov felt good in his dual role as a referee and power-broker for pro-Russian groups in these countries.

In Moldova, the issue of neutrality and disarmament became taboo. Otherwise, Moldovan politicians risked being labelled as enemies of Moldova’s statehood, pro-unionists looking for Romania to swallow up its eastern neighbour, or simply pro-NATO supporters.

Sense of safety from control and a carbon copy of Kremlin’s corruption

But how was the assumed position of neutrality justified, considering the presence of Russian troops on the sovereign territory of Moldova?

Although there is no clear answer, I am inclined to believe that for some 30 years, Moscow managed to achieve adequate control over a significant part of the domestic elites in Chișinău.

The pro-Moscow parties in Moldova received the Kremlin’s support in exchange for asserting a pro-Russian and anti-European identity. Economic dependence mattered just as much.

Moreover, full control of the defence, security and intelligence services offered a sense of safety to any pro-Russian party chief in the Republic of Moldova.

Corruption which has plagued the country since its independence, came as a mimicry, a carbon copy of the practices in the Russian Federation.

With all that stacked against the government in Chișinău, even the slightest change in course would inevitably result in trouble.

Moldova Is Bravely Standing Up To Russia. This Could Be One Of Europe'S Success Stories
People carry a Russian flag (C) and a flag with a portait of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reading “We are for Putin!” in Tiraspol, in 2014

It was enough for a president like Maia Sandu to challenge Moscow’s Russophile and anti-Europeanist narrative with a speech about the country’s pro-EU desires, anticorruption initiatives and overall reform to rattle Moscow to the point it became nervous and threatening.

Moreover, discussions over Moldova’s continued neutrality policy became particularly worrisome for Moscow when the pro-European political parties squarely sided with Ukraine.

In turn, it used Moldova’s energy dependence on Russia to create internal conflict.

The street demonstrations of the pro-Russian parties in Chisinau were, in essence, destabilisation attempts.

Most Europeans were not aware of these “bitter fruits” of Moldovan neutrality and would remain in the dark if Russia had not invaded Ukraine. 

Even those who had known about these issues for years were not clear on the scale until the fluid strategic context created by the Russian aggression in Ukraine came to the fore.

Now, it is time to do more to help the country find its way out of its quagmires. The international support platform for Moldova, run by France, Germany, and Romania, is a perfect start.

European integration and strategic autonomy are the solutions to Russia’s pressure

The war in Ukraine will fundamentally change the paradigm of defence in Europe, and the Republic of Moldova has a choice.

Moreover, after a year of war in the neighbouring state, Chișinău’s balance sheet of honest politicians vs those influenced or outright controlled by Moscow is not to the liking of the Russian Federation.

Moreover, the courageous decisions taken by President Sandu and the pro-European government led by Natalia Gavrilița have shifted this balance even further.

That has led your average Moldovans to begin to see the gilded lattices of the cage of supposed neutrality designed to suit Moscow and supported by Lavrov and others at the Kremlin.

The examples of Sweden and Finland, authentic neutral states resilient to any significant evolution in the security environment despite Russia’s proximity, gave Moldova an essential lesson on how to respond to Moscow’s blackmail, especially when it’s done openly.

Moscow’s paternalistic neutrality trumpeted against Moldova cashes in on the fear of war, the fear of the costs of energy dependence, and internal instability.

Moldova Is Bravely Standing Up To Russia. This Could Be One Of Europe'S Success Stories
A married couple poses at The Triumph Arch next to Moldovan flag on Stefan Cel Mare street in Chisinau city on October 8, 2013

Moldova is about to discover that, while neutrality can remain a constitutional principle in the face of these dramatic changes, salvation can only come in the form of European integration and genuine strategic autonomy.

Furthermore, the defence strategy of the Republic of Moldova and its armed forces have become the most critical priorities. Moldova needs modern defence capabilities, assistance programs and defence resources.

If this were to fail, neutrality without ensuring strategic autonomy would continue to be just another sophisticated way for the country to remain in the Russian imperial periphery.

The Moldovan miracle could be one of the European success stories.

Now is the time for Europe to believe in it. 

Claudiu Degeratu holds a PhD in International Relations and European Studies and is Associate Expert at GlobalFocus Center in Bucharest. In the past, he has worked as General Director for Defence Policy and Planning at the Romanian Ministry of Defence.

At Euronews, we believe all views matter. Contact us at [email protected] to send pitches or submissions and be part of the conversation.

Yorumlar

Henüz yorum yapılmamış. İlk yorumu yukarıdaki form aracılığıyla siz yapabilirsiniz.