The clear stipulation in a national policy document, namely in the draft National Security Strategy, of the fact that the Russian Federation is the state that poses a threat to national security is something of a novelty that takes into account the current conditions in the region, the permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan stated in a public debate entitled “Country’s security: dangers, solutions, novelties”.
“We have a war in the region and this started after President Vladimir Putin told the Ukrainians that they are actually Russians, but are Russians with distorted identity,” stated Igor Boțan, noting that the Republic of Moldova from the same Putin received a very clear message that it can lose its identity owing to the political class. “In fact, I think it is also inciting to revolt in Moldova of particular persons who care about their identity. So, we see these innovatory approaches when state security is based on the individual, not on the group of individuals who are under the auspices of a state,” noted Igor Boțan.
The expert said that besides this novelty, the draft National Security Strategy underscores a number of other dangers to national security, which have been discussed for many years. “Corruption as a threat to the security of the Republic of Moldova is stipulated also in the current strategy adopted in 2011. It is a great scourge. We all realize that the dangers from outside are substantivized here, in the Republic of Moldova, through corrupt persons who, in exchange for financial support, can do many interesting things here, in the Republic of
Moldova,” sated Igor Boțan.
Referring to the draft Strategy’s provisions about the strengthening of state institutions, the expert said these refer to the institutions that fight corruption, especially because in June the Constitutional Court outlawed a party because this was dealing with the corrupting of citizens. “Here is the tie between individual security of citizens, the necessity of strong state institutions, in particular those that fight corruption, and the strategic goal of integrating into the European Union which introduced sanctions against this former party that tells us, the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, that it wants to make us happy without saying what it wants from us instead. But we realize what they want – our vote for their services,” noted the expert.
As to the influence exerted by the Russian Federation through the agency of the propaganda machine, Igor Boțan said the authorities, the citizens cannot pretend not to realize these things “They should be clearly articulated and we can see them in this draft Strategy if we read between the lines.”
The public debate entitled “Country’s security: dangers, solutions, novelties” was the 292nd installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.