“As dangerous are the irresponsible politicians from the states-victims of these wars that ally themselves with aggressive imperialist circles, opening branches for them on the territory of the states that they represent and become instigators and supporters of regional wars. The truth is such instigators manage sometimes to become beneficiaries of regional wars and the Republic of Moldova is an example where such things happened indeed…”
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Degradation of political narrative
The narrative of the political players in the Republic of Moldova has degenerated. In general, the political narrative should refer to concrete deeds or events generated by politicians and to the estimation of the given events’ impact on public life, etc. Regrettably, the political narrative of party leaders in the Republic of Moldova is separated from the reality and is actually replaced by propagandistic tirades. This phenomenon could have been easily ignored if the given leaders hadn’t had media outlets for disseminating propagandistic aberrations.
The interminable and tiresome dispute of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova and its leader Igor Dodon with President Maia Sandu offers us a number of examples of replacement of the political narrative with propagandistic pastiches. The most remarkable recent relevant episode refers to the statements made by the leader of the PSRM concerning the danger of a regional war: “The presidential institution is now under foreign control and this is very dangerous. A serious war can start in the region. You see what’s happening in Ukraine. I’m afraid Maia Sandu can engage us in a regional war,” said Igor Dodon, who is one of the beneficiaries of a regional war in Eastern Europe.
Regional war that has lasted for seven years
In Easter Europe, where the Republic of Moldova is situated, regional wars of variable intensity have taken place for approximately 30 years, since the USSR fell apart. The most recent regional war is that of 2020, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which lasted for 44 days. Another regional war has taken place in the Eastern part of Ukraine for over seven years. It is curious, but all the wars in the former Soviet area involve the Russian Federation for the reason that the Russian nation made gifts to the states that declared their independence after the dismemberment of the USSR. Evidently, the leader of the PSRM is concerned about a regional war close to the Republic of Moldova’s borders, as if this does not exist. Surely:
- the whole architecture of the regional security was undermined in 2014, together with the annexation of Crimea (see from min. 0.54) by the Russian Federation and the occupation of a part of Donbas by equipped Russian mercenaries;
- Igor Dodon stated a specific viewpoint about the annexation of Crimea after his election as President of the Republic of Moldova: “De facto, it (Crimea) forms part of Russia. But this thing hasn’t been yet recognized legally. A multitude of states, the largest part of the Western world didn’t admit it, but de facto Crimea belongs to Russia …”. Evidently, Igor Dodon didn’t have the courage of the Presidents who recognized the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation – Afghanistan, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Syria and North Korea;
- for seven years, a war between the armed forces of Ukraine and Russian mercenaries has taken place in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities consider this war is military aggression on the part of Russia, with over 40,000 persons having been killed in it;
- mediation of a solution to the war in Donbas was internationalized by the Minsk protocols of 2014 and 2015. But the implementation of these documents is impossible because the Russian Rederation opposes Ukraine’s control over the segment of the border through which the separatist region is supplied with armament and mercenaries;
- internationalization of the conflict in Donbas has one more dimension – investigation of the downing of a Malaysian passenger plane of the MH17 flight with Russian armament, etc.
Real beneficiary of regional war
Currently, after the aforementioned events, but especially after the leader of the PSRM expressed his concern about an eventual regional conflict, we should remember how the leader of the PSRM became one of the beneficiaries of the regional war that he supported, expressing publicly his support for the annexation of Crimea and the wish to recover the historical territories lost in favor of Ukraine with the assistance of Russia. This is what Igor Dodon stated in the program White and Black of March 19, 2014, the next day after the annexation of Crimea: “In the new conjuncture, I think we should also recover the lost historical territories […] I consider it is very clear what I meant. These are our territories. If someone didn’t understand what I meant, they should come to our party and we will explain to them”.
The pleading in favor of a regional war helped Igor Dodon and the PSRM, which at that moment had a rating of only 0.5%, to attract on their side during only several months half of the nostalgic supporters of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM). The key to the PSRM’s success at the parliamentary elections of November 2014 consisted in the dissemination of posters that showed the open support of the Russian President Vladimir Putin for the leaders of the PSRM. They didn’t need sophisticated electoral technologies. The massive support for Igor Dodon and the PSRM of the Russian press retransmitted on Moldova’s territory and the pictures together with the President of Russia were enough to ruin the PCRM and attract its voters. Consequently, the PSRM and its leader became dependent on their benefactor and this dependence was constantly expressed by:
- constant threatens that the Association Agreement with the European Union would be scrapped in favor of the entry into the Eurasian Economic Union;
- opening in Chisinau of the branch of the main promoter of the Russian imperialism – the Isborsk Club whose members took an active part in the war in Donbas and openly aim to join Transnistria to the Russian Federation ;
- announcing of the intention to award the Transnistrian service members for protecting the separatist enclave and the Russian peacekeepers;
- speech, as the President, from the UN rostrum in favor of the Russian policy in Transnistria to the detriment of the official position of the Government of the Republic of Moldova concerning the necessity of withdrawing the Russian military presence in Transnistria;
- pleading in favor of Russia and condemnation of Western sanctions for the illegal annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas despite the fact that Russia repeatedly imposed economic bans on the Republic of Moldova, punishing it in 2005 for the introduction of customs control on the Transnistrian segment of the border with Ukraine with the EU’s support and in 2013 for the intention to sign the Association Agreement with the EU.
The several aforementioned examples show how false the accusation against his main political opponent is when he said that “The presidential institution is now under foreign control and the danger is big”. In fact, the given assertion would have been true if it had referred to the period of 2016-2020.
Conclusions
The narrative of party leaders in the Republic of Moldova degenerated to the limit after which the given leaders do not even realize that they actually invoke the own political inconsistency that can be proven by concrete facts.
The danger of regional wars is imminent as long as there are states that ignore the final documents of the CSCE of 1975, destroying the architecture of regional security through hybrid wars. The regional wars in the Eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia followed by the consolidation of the separatist regimes, recognition of their independence or even annexation of the territories of the sovereign states, have taken place for almost 30 years, with freezing and unfreezing.
In such circumstances, we should realize that a special danger to regional security is posed by the aggressor states that apply hybrid technologies and by the instigators with imperialist views that take part in such wars. As dangerous are the irresponsible politicians from the states-victims of these wars that ally themselves with aggressive imperialist circles, opening branches for them on the territory of the states that they represent, and become instigators and supporters of regional wars. The truth is such instigators manage sometimes to become beneficiaries of regional wars and the Republic of Moldova is an example where such things happened indeed.