The Republic of Moldova is not a hostile state towards the Russian Federation, and the arguments regarding alleged Russophobia, excessive armament, or discrimination against Russian speakers are false. The statement belongs to the former president of the Constitutional Court, Alexandru Tanase, and was made during the public debate “What are the objectives of Russia’s threats against Moldova?”, organized by the IPN News Agency. According to him, the neutrality status of the Republic of Moldova does not imply renouncing its defense capacity and that, through the message that the Republic of Moldova is violating its neutrality status, Russia is seeking pretexts to promote its own interests in the region.

Alexandru Tanase has rejected the narrative that the Republic of Moldova would be a Russophobic or hostile state towards the Russian Federation. According to him, the political and social reality in the Republic of Moldova does not support such a statement.

“In the Republic of Moldova, there is no political formation that would have xenophobic or Russophobic messages. The state of the Republic of Moldova, despite the difficulties we face, is a democratic state. We do not divide citizens based on the language they speak. In the Republic of Moldova, there are no militaristic parties, there is no politician who would have nationalist messages. The very premise that the Republic of Moldova would be something hostile to the Russian Federation is false,” explained the former president of the Constitutional Court.

Tanase has also rejected the claims that the Republic of Moldova would excessively arm itself. He explained that the acquisition of equipment for air space monitoring cannot be considered an aggressive armament policy.

“And the rhetoric according to which the Republic of Moldova is excessively arming itself is another falsehood. The fact that the Republic of Moldova has purchased two radars to precisely see what aircraft are flying over its airspace cannot be treated as excessive armament. Moreover, the status of neutrality does not imply an obligation not to arm oneself. Neutral states have the right to have their own armies. Being neutral does not mean deliberately remaining vulnerable and open to potential aggression,” specified Alexandru Tanase.

According to him, the arguments regarding the protection of Russian language speakers do not reflect the true objectives of the Russian Federation. He believes that Moscow uses such themes as pretexts to escalate pressures on the Republic of Moldova, while the real objective is a geopolitical one.

“Russia is looking for pretexts to escalate this conflict and to achieve completely different goals than defending Russian speakers. Anyone who has been to Chisinau at least once will see that a lot of Russian is spoken and I don’t remember anyone having a hostile attitude. Russia has geopolitical objectives. They want a reconfiguration of the old security system that was established after the Second World War,” said the former president of the Constitutional Court.

The public debate “What are Russia’s threats to Moldova aiming at?” is the 359th edition in the series “Developing political culture in public debates”. The IPN Agency carries out this series of debates with the support of the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.