The fact that Russia has become an authoritarian state allows it to take quick decisions regarding the formulas for destabilizing the former Soviet republics, including the Republic of Moldova, the permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boţan stated in a public debate titled “War and Peace in 2024”.
“We, in the Republic of Moldova, feel this through the way Russian propaganda and some political parties behave, which, as the Prosecutor’s Office and other responsible bodies of Moldova announced, finance the so-called protests, finance political parties, so-called projects that must divide society and ensure conditions for the destabilization of former Soviet republics which are easily included by Russia in the Russian World concept,” noted the expert.
Igor Boţan said that this year emphasis should be placed on further combating propaganda, which “is extremely dangerous”. The expert voiced hope that the Center for Strategic Communication and Combating of Disinformation will begin to act and will demonstrate its effectiveness, but will also dispel criticism according to which this center was created to limit the freedom of expression of citizens. He noted that it is also important for the Moldovan authorities to learn to block money flows from obscure sources coming to the country to finance political parties that aim to destabilize the state. Also, the reforms started in Moldova must be brought on a very constructive, efficient track, especially the reform of the Supreme Court of Justice and the start of the vetting procedure for judges and prosecutors.
In other connection, referring to the goals achieved by the belligerent countries in 2022-2023, the expert said that Ukraine hasn’t practically lost the positions it set at the end of 2022, which proves that Ukraine is capable of at least defending the positions it maintains now. A lot depends on the support of allies because Ukraine’s military power is based on motivating Ukrainian soldiers to defend their homeland, but is extremely difficult to achieve this goal without ammunition, without support from allies. Russia hasn’t achieved its goals, but quite the opposite. “If we look at the goals announced initially, not allowing NATO expansion, disarming Ukraine and what they call ‘denazification’, these goals haven’t obviously been achieved. However, we must admit that the strategy that Russia applied after suffering very painful defeats in 2022, after the reconquest by the Ukrainians of Kherson and the liberation of Kharkov, that line of defense that Russia built, starting with the autumn of 2022 and during the winter of 2023, brought some success to Russia. But this state led to the situation we have - a war of attrition, a war of positions,” he said.
Igor Boțan noted that the citizens of Ukraine have no choice but to resist the aggression of the Russian Federation. “The internal cohesion in this country and the capacity of Ukrainian diplomacy to ensure international financial, economic and military support matter a lot. Ukraine made it very clear that the war will end as soon as Russia withdraws its occupation troops from its territory. As far as Russia is concerned, things are complicated and the expectations are rather pessimistic because we have heard Putin’s statements that they will fight until they achieve their goals,” concluded the expert.
The public debate entitled “War and Peace in 2024” was the 298th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
