Igor Boțan, permanent expert of IPN’s Political Culture Series, says that the avalanche of false bomb threats reported in Moldova recently should be viewed in context with a number of political developments, while each instance should be treated with extreme caution.
Commenting on the statements made recently by the Moldovan president and the speaker, that the hoax threats are well-planned actions aimed to destabilize the political situation in Moldova, Igor Boțan said that it is important to clarify whether the threat comes from the inside or outside of our country. According to him, considering that we have a war around, the matter must be approached very seriously.
“We see that a certain state, a permanent member of the (UN) Security Council, from 2014 has been methodically undermining the regional security architecture. This state has created this kind of anchors, separatist regimes scattered across the territory of the former Soviet Union, which it now uses, trying to unfreeze them in order to achieve its geopolitical goals, which is to restore the space that the Soviet Union or the Russian Empire once controlled (...) We don’t know for sure, but this approach must be taken into consideration”, said the expert during an IPN debate on the subject.
“Then we have the domestic situation as well, with a number of concurrent crises, and the highest officials in this country tell us that the threat of destabilization, of chaos, also emanates from certain domestic political forces. Because chaos always precedes a new order. Of course, we see these pressures being put on the Moldovan political elite with the purpose of changing its behavior. I am talking about the attitude towards the Ukraine war, the insistence that the authorities resume talks with the Russian Federation on energy prices, and so on. So, we are looking at an extremely complex situation”, added Igor Boțan.
According to him, the authorities should treat matters in the context of a series of “extremely virulent reactions” to recent events. “We saw a virulent reaction to Moldova gaining EU candidate status. We have seen virulent attitudes from some circles after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe declared that it regards Transnistria as a territory occupied by the Russian Federation. We saw the case of Belarus, with the Ryanair flight (being hijacked) to arrest a person. We see terror being used against the civilian population of Ukraine. We saw that Russia established a list of unfriendly countries in relation to which, in my understanding, Russia can do many things because it wants a new world order. Then there are organized criminal groups, at least that’s what the Moldovan authorities tell us, which have an interest in destabilizing the situation domestically. So, there is a series of factors that must all be analyzed”.
However, until things become clearer, the expert warns that there is an “extremely dangerous” factor. “We are starting to get used to these (false bomb) threats. Habituation means that if they persist, we will tend to brand them all as potentially false. But we do not know what is in the mind of those who plan the destabilization and what they are capable of. That’s why vigilance is extremely important. And of course, the authorities must communicate with the people and explain to them what is happening and what could be the causes of this avalanche of false threats”, said the political pundit.
Igor Boțan went on to note that the authorities don’t appear to be eager to share with the population the existing lines of enquiry, but he welcomed the creation of an investigative group that deals with the false threats.
The debate was the 257th installment of the Political Culture Series, run by IPN with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
