Executive director of the Foreign Policy Association (APE) Victor Chirilă said that no positive and qualitative changes occurred in the relationship between the Republic of Moldova and Russia. The dialogue is held between Presidents. No changes were witnessed in the economic and political sectors in general.
“If we speak, for example, about Transnistria, we further see that despite the dialogue and warming between Dodon and the presidential administration or the government of the Russian Federation, the Transnistrian administration creates new posts on the administrative border – over 18 posts were set up until now. They do not say anything about the disposal of armament. I think this subject is now frozen. So, nothing positive can be seen as a result of this dialog. What will happen if this agreement is blocked? The relations between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation will probably continue to deteriorate,” Victor Chirilă stated in an interview RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service that is quoted by IPN.
According to him, the Moldovans working in Russia will suffer, as well the farmers who export their products to Russia. “And this is not because of the opposition, but because of Mister Dodon and his government that negotiated, but I don’t think that we can use this word – negotiated – here. This is a lending agreement with the Russian Federation. From my viewpoint, it is an agreement that was dictated by the Russian Federation,” noted the APE director.
The expert considers this agreement was negotiated directly from the President’s office with representatives of the Russian government and presidential administration. “My feeling is that this agreement was dictated and accepted as Mister Dodon needs this loan to put into practice those megalomaniac projects, especially in times of a pandemic and not only. He says this loan is “free from conditions”, which is not true as there are tacit conditions that the Russian Federation imposed on Moldova to release such loans. But these conditions for Mister Dodon do not matter and he overlooks them,” said Victor Chirilă.
He also said that the agreement is now a signal that Russia didn’t give up bringing back Moldova under its sphere of influence at any cost. It is a long-term trap that was also used in the 1990s, when the state took out a loan from the Russian Federation to pay the debts for the consumed gas and ultimately lost control over the gas company “Moldovagaz””.
