“Against the background of the wars in Ukraine and Israel, the Moldovan authorities ultimately decided to publish the draft national security strategy of the Republic of Moldova. The public debate of this document becomes of existential importance after the challenging of the identity of the Republic of Moldova by Vladimir Putin and after the confirmation of the identity of Putin’s regime by the PACE...”
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Moldova loses its identity?

Against the background of the wars in Ukraine and Israel, started by Russia and, respectively, by the Palestinian Islamic paramilitary organization “Hamas”, President Vladimir Putin decided to publicly express his concern about the loss of Moldova’s identity. According to him, the elites of the Republic of Moldova generally believe that they are not Moldovan. They identify themselves as Romanians… The full loss of the country’s identity is the choice of the current administration of Moldova. But I repeat that no one can stop them, except for the people of Moldova, if there are yet persons in this country who consider themselves Moldovans.

If President Putin decided to publicly pronounce on the identity of the Republic of Moldova, it means that the latter is in a serious danger. Exactly the same way, half a year before the launch of the aggression against Ukraine, the leader from the Kremlin challenged also the identity of Ukraine, in his famous article entitled “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, in which he reached the conclusion that the idea of an independent Ukraine can be only anti-Russian. It happened after the annexation of Crimea and the instigation of the war in Donbas and Luhansk regions.

At first sight, Putin’s logic is paradoxical. On the one hand, the reassertion of the Ukrainian identity, different from the Russian one, is considered a danger to Russia’s interests. Respectively, a war to destroy the Ukrainian state and the Ukrainians as a nation was launched. This task was explicitly formulated on the very first days of the Russian invasion, through the official news agency RIA NOVOSTI, and was then confirmed by one of the ideologists of the ruling party “United Russia”.

On the other hand, the Republic of Moldova on the contrary is accused of losing its identity. The manifestation of Putin’s concerns in this regard is accompanied by the inciting to revolt of those who still consider themselves Moldovans and who blindly share the Putinist ideas. In fact, there is no paradox – any ideas and actions that run counter to the imperial ideology – Russian World – are combated also through the agency of wars, both hybrid and armed ones. That’s why the strengthening of the Ukrainian identity of our neighbors and the coming closer in a natural way by the Republic of Moldova to Romania, where there are all the historical monuments of medieval Moldova, which is our ethnic and cultural roots, will be challenged by Putin’s regime and its acolytes from the branch of the Russian imperial movement in Chisinau.

Reassertion of the identity of Putin’s Russia

While President Putin is concerned about the identity of the Ukrainians and Moldovans, the international institutions rediscover the political identity of this and of the regime he built in Russia. This way, in October 2022, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a Resolution by which it recognized the regime in Russia as a terrorist one. A month later, in November 2022, the European Parliament confirmed the status of Putin’s regime – a state sponsor of terrorism. In July 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) adopted a Resolution by which it recognized Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. In such circumstances, the conclusion is that terrorism and the threatening with the use of this actually represent the instruments used by Putin’s regime in the process of building the Russian World.

Recently, we could ascertain that the terrorist character of Putin’s regime in fact wasn’t expressed in an exudative way. This way, on October 13, 2023, the PACE adopted one more Resolution saying that Vladimir Putin’s term in office that lasted for almost 25 years has turned the Russian Federation into a dictatorship that “represents a threat to international peace and security”. Consequently, the PSCE urged:

• all States parties to the Statute of the International Criminal Court are legally bound to arrest Vladimir Putin when he enters their jurisdiction on the basis of the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on 17 March 2023;
• the member States of the Council of Europe  should recognize Vladimir Putin as illegitimate after the end of his current presidential term and to cease all contact with him, except for humanitarian contact and in the pursuit of peace;   
• the ad hoc international criminal tribunal should investigate all events on the territory of Ukraine from February 2014, starting with the illegal annexation of Crimea, the war in the Donbas region and the downing of flight MH17, etc.

So, with the effort of the international institutions, they managed to confirm the identity of Putin’s regime – terrorist dictatorship that lack illegitimacy in its international relations. It is curious that immediately after the confirmation of the identity of Putin’s regime, the very next day, one of the traditional allies of Russia – Armenia – ratified the accession to the Statute of the International Criminal Court. A sign that is worth full appreciation! 

Suspicious attitudes and silences...

The Republic of Moldova’s delegation consisting of members of Parliament also took part in the PACE session were the identity of Putin’s regime was specified. One of the delegation’s members, who doesn’t miss any occasion (see 2022, 2023) to identify himself as a fan of Vladimir Putin and who took part in the recent session of the PACE, summed up the results of the session, avoiding yet making reference to the resolution on the identity of Putin’s  regime. This way, it is once again confirmed that the representatives of the pro-Putinist parties in the Republic of Moldova prefer to ignore the methods used to build the Russian World and also the international community’s reactions to these methods.

In the same connection, it should be noted that the adoption of the given PACE resolution took place a week before the start of the Hamas terror against Israel, which Putin’s regime didn’t condemn. On the contrary, the Hamas leaders thanked Putin’s regime for blocking the adoption of a condemnation decision by the UN Security Council. Moreover, another Hamas leader, in an interview for the branch of Russia Today, stated that: “We have factories for Kalashnikov rifles and their bullets. We are manufacturing the bullets with permission from the Russians. This is what a part of the international assistance for the Gaza Strip is designed for. Respectively, we can presume that Hamas and other terrorist organizations became instruments for building the multipolar world.  

It is somehow evident that if Russia doesn’t condemn the Hamas terror, the leaders of the Communist-Socialist bloc act similarly. The latter held office of President of the Republic of Moldova and, respectively, after the expiry of their presidential terms, they normally continued to state their regret about particular tragic cases that took place in Russia. This is how the Communist leader Vladimir Voronin acted in 2012 and the Socialist leader Igor Dodon acted similarly in 2021. Not yet in the case of the terror launched by Hamas against Israel.

In the aforementioned circumstances, we should only remember the praise words of the leader of the Liberal party and ex-Speaker of Parliament Mihai Ghimpu for the Jewish people and a person whom he considered part of this, Oleg Reidman – the brain of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova. Regrettably, the latter also didn’t condemn the Hamas terrorism. We can presume that the party discipline and the aligning with the position of Putin’s regime are more important than the expression of empathy with those who suffer.

Conclusions

Against the background of the wars in Ukraine and Israel, the Moldovan authorities ultimately decided to publish the draft national security strategy of the Republic of Moldova. The public debate of this document becomes of existential importance after the challenging of the identity of the Republic of Moldova by Vladimir Putin and after the confirmation of the identity of Putin’s regime by the PACE.