Politicians who promote the narrative of the “struggle for peace” without supporting the strengthening of the country’s defense and security do so for electoral purposes because we three extremely important exercises are forthcoming: the presidential election, the constitutional referendum and the parliamentary elections, expert Igor Botan stated in a public debate entitled “What interests does “struggle for peace” hide in wartime?”. According to him, some of the representatives of the political class chose to avoid contradictory public debates, thus accentuating the polarization of society.
Igor Botan noted that with the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the subject of security has become extremely important for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. This subject has been intensely exploited by the political class, the camps being divided between those who plead the European integration and those who consider neutrality the main guarantor of security.
“Ten years ago, when asked what their fears were, only 2-3% of the respondents mentioned a war in the region. Now, due to the war in Ukraine, this percentage has increased dozens of times. Currently, those who fear the war in the region constitute 30-40%. Obviously, for politicians, no matter what camp they are from, exploring citizens' fear is a resource they resort to. That’s why we have two currents. The official current says that in order to ensure the security of the Republic of Moldova, the country must integrate into the European Union because the EU is the space of peace, cooperation between peoples, well-being. And we have the opposite current, which says that the Republic of Moldova must behave in a way that would correspond to the status of a neutral country. The second current claims that the authorities of the Republic of Moldova would show lack of discernment. Despite the fact that there are several UN General Assembly resolutions condemning the Russian aggression, this segment of politicians in the Republic of Moldova insists that we should not have an opinion about this war, because we could upset the Russian Federation,” said Igor Boțan.
He noted that the politicians who support the narrative of the “struggle for peace” ignore the Russian military aggression in Ukraine. The Republic of Moldova is not strengthening its defense capabilities for possible involvement in the war, but is preparing to resist a possible attack by Russia.
“These politicians are fighting for peace without condemning an ongoing war. I mean the fact that the Republic of Moldova should not strengthen its defense capability because then we could upset Russia. This is in a situation when Russia tells us very clearly that it aims to gather Russian lands. This is what President Putin says with an absolutely open text. When we talk about strengthening the defense capabilities, everyone understands that the Republic of Moldova does not intend to enter the war, but to have the capacity to resist, as little as possible, so that the diplomatic instruments, possibly, if attacked, can be used to attract help. We are a small country with small military potential, but we really can have dignity and say what is bad and what is good?” said the permanent expert of IPN’s project.
He noted that the stake of pro-Russian politicians who insist on the narrative of the “struggle for peace” are this year’s presidential election and the 2025 parliamentary elections. For correct information of society, there should be held contradictory debates in which representatives of both political camps would participate.
“There are internal goals – the struggle for power. We are ahead of the presidential election. The parliamentary elections are coming. We are ahead of the referendum on European integration. All these exercises are targets that the political class pursues. We have the Transnistrian region, 12% of the territory, which according to the Constitutional Court is territory occupied by Russia. There are troops that organize all kinds of military exercises there. How can we solve all our problems when there is a state that claims to be an Empire and considers that it must rebuild its Empire? Why has China been able to make an extraordinary leap in 40 years, while Russia has started to reconquer territories? These questions should be answered by the representatives of the political class during the contradictory debates. But we have groups that debate the topics separately, supporting each other. This is done to polarize society for electoral purposes,” concluded the expert.
The public debate entitled “What interests does “struggle for peace” hide in wartime?” was the 307th installment of the series “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates”. The project is supported by the German “Hanns Seidel” Foundation.
