The rapprochement between the EU and Russia favors not the NATO’s positon, but the public sympathies with the Eurasian Economic Union where Moldova recently obtained the status of observer, political pundit Dionis Cenusa says in an analytical article for IPN Agency.
According to the expert, the low popularity of the Euro-Atlantic course in Moldova and the country’s neutrality status hamper the consolidation of the pro-NATO aspirations among Moldovans.
Currently, Moldovans’ preferences are practically equally divided between the EU and the Eurasian Union, while the improvement of the relations with Russia, which is wanted by the EU, could advantage the pro-Russian forces in Moldova, which pursue a multi-vector foreign policy.
A positive development in the EU-Russian relationship will create difficulties for the Democratic Party of Moldova, which tailored its political profile based on the geopolitical polarization of the population and constant incorporation of the Russian threats into the national political narrative.
Thus, the anti-Russia agenda promoted by the Democrats will collide with the local reality where the Europeans make effort to renew the relations between Brussels and Moscow.
The eventual rapprochement between the EU and Russia will disarm the Democrats, but will strengthen the position of the extraparliamentary opposition that, besides the European affiliation, articulated anti-oligarchic approaches that will continue at least until the parliamentary elections of December 2018, concluded the politologist.
