The authoritarian values promoted from the East undermine Moldova's efforts in its democratic development. The opinion belongs to Dumitru Manzarari, the author of a research titled “Russia's foreign policy as an obstacle in the democratic development of the post-Soviet space”. The study was presented on June 9 at the IDIS Vittorul think tank's premises, Info-Prim Neo reports. The author points out issues outlining Moldova's vulnerabilities, in terms of elites, structure, operational tools. According to Dumitru Manzarari, the authoritarian elites are more vulnerable to foreign influence, than the democratic elites. Moldova feels stronger the influence of the authoritarian wave now, following the loss of some key indices for the inner democratization process: independent justice, free media, transparent and predictable decision-making process, political opposition protected by special laws. The political crisis situation is explained through the remnants of the old Soviet regime, and but the relatively isolated character of the country towards the integrationist European process. These two trends explain the character of Moldova's specific vulnerabilities to Russia, also conditioned by the unsafety felt individually and nationally, Manzarari explains. The expert says certain political elites from Moldova are tempted to promote their personal and group interests, to the detriment of the responsibilities they have in relation to the people: “That is why the Eastern governing model is attractive. Or, accepting the liberal-democratic norms would immediately entail the existence of independent justice, which would penalize the power abuse.” Consequently, the state will resemble more to the one controlled more by the external factor. Taking into account that the Eastern influence has enhanced the recent years, Moldova has slidden to a more authoritarian governing model. Democratization can anyway be reached in Moldova by mobilizing the Western partners more efficiently, Manzarari believes. He has said “because of certain reasons, albeit political or economic, the EU has wavered to assume more active roles till now, being more interested in calming Moscow, than in confronting it, which, actually, is absolutely unavoidable. By ricochet, however, Russia perceives this moves as objective “yieldings”, or concessions that it can grasp from the EU elites, using certain pressure levers, sensitive for Brussels (the energy resources delivered to the European consumers), acting as if discussing with a weak opponent, with obvious vulnerabilities that Russia can easily exploit.” The study makes recommendations how to overcome the problems of the democratic transition. It recommends to thoroughly study the non-military technologies Russia uses to take the political control over Moldova and other CIS countries. Since the Moldovan leadership is not able to resist the Kremlin's external pressure, the only way out not to allow the transformation into a “classical satellite” of Russia is for the West to get involved more actively, by steadily counteracting Russia's influence policies, the author considers.