The Republic of Moldova gradually aligns itself with the sanctions introduced against the Russian Federation. The positive side of the sanctions imposed on the aggressor state is that Chisinau managed to ensure its energy independence and purchased natural gas from other markets too, PAS MP Igor Chiriac stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. The MP noted that in accordance with the law in restrictive measures, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration is the one that decides what sanctions will be imposed on private individuals or legal entities.
Recently, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Nicu Popescu announced that the Republic of Moldova prepares a list of 25 persons who will be penalized for violating human rights in Ukraine. He noted that it goes to travel bans, freezes of assets and bank accounts of persons involved in the aggression against Ukraine. In the same connection, PAS MP Igor Chiriac said that after the war in Ukraine broke out, Moldova didn’t dare to take such actions as it was dependent on Russia’s natural gas.
“The Republic of Moldova has a law on restrictive measures that was adopted in 2016. Together with the aligning of the Republic of Moldova with particular sanctions, the MFAEI issues a decision that is published in the Official Gazette. Later, these sanctions become mandatory for any entity present in the Republic of Moldova. The positive effect of these sanctions is that the Republic of Moldova slashed its dependence on Gazprom and extended its energy independence. Something like this wasn’t done earlier,” stated Igor Chiriac.
The PAS MP noted that as a result of the Western sanctions imposed on Russia, the economy of the aggressor state has declined and this created preconditions for reducing Russia’s capacity to make and purchase armament and, in general, to finance the war.
“Following the sanctions imposed by the European Union, we saw that many companies with foreign capital that were on Russia’s territory left the country, ceasing operations. We saw that the economy of the Russian Federation has declined. If we make reference to the prices of oil and natural gas sold by the Russian Federation, we see that these resources are not purchased in the European Union and Russia tries to sell them at a lower price to China, India. The goal is to reduce the Russian Federation’s incomes so as to limit its capacities to buy armament and advance in Ukraine. In the case of private individuals, the areas of activity, financial transactions, trips are limited. Those sanctioned can now vacation on the bank of the Baikal Lake only,” said the MP.
Igor Chiriac explained that the Republic of Moldova hasn’t immediately joined the European sanctions imposed on Russia because the Moldovan authorities had to handle the most serious energy crisis in the country’s history. So far Moldova has diversified its energy sources and can be now more active with regard to the sanctions imposed on Russia.
“When the war started, the Republic of Moldova was dependent on the energy resources imported from Russia. At the moment, the Republic of Moldova makes effort to identify solutions and when solutions are found, we increasingly subscribe to the packages of sanctions. The sanctions create preconditions for the EU member states and countries with the EU candidate status like the Republic of Moldova to identify other export markets and markets from which to purchase energy resources. Even if this war is brought to an end, Russia’s economy will suffer during a long period of time yet. In the energy sector, for example, Azerbaijan became an important player in the region,” said the representative of the ruling party.
The public debate entitled “Alignment with EU sanctions against Russia: reasons and risks” was the 277th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
