The recent escalation of the conflict in Ukraine directly affects the Republic of Moldova. The protracted conflict fueled by Russia on Moldova’s territory generates the risk that Moldova will be the next country involved in the war. At the moment, it is important that the Moldovan people should resist the actions taken by Russia, expert Igor Boțan stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency.
The expert noted that the idea of restoring the grandeur of Russia appeared in April 2005, when the President of Russia Vladimir Putin said that the dismemberment of the Soviet Union was a geopolitical catastrophe. Currently, the propaganda is the main partner of the Russian elite in the process of rebuilding “Soviet” Russia. The propaganda should be analyzed thoroughly and blocked. In Moldova, this wasn’t done properly.
Igor Boțan said the Russian propaganda promotes the idea that Russia was humiliated after the defeat suffered in the cold war. “Russia aims to restore the borders of the Russian and Soviet empires and this is openly said by the Russian propaganda,” stated the expert.
According to him, the democratically elected Ukrainian administration could convince the international community that Ukraine should be helped as the Russian revanchism is a very serious risk. But the people of Ukraine were also ready to defend their dignity, the sovereignty and independence of their country. “In such a situation, Putin had to resort to a new war phase in which the international community is threatened with the use of nuclear weapons. The ongoing mobilization implies huge risks to the regime of Putin but we and other former republics realize that we are also under threat. We can hope that Ukraine will resist and the international community will be able to restrict the Russian aggression to particular limits so that a solution could be found later to improve the situation and return to normality,” said Igor Boțan.
The expert noted that the figures of Moldovans who support Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and those who are against this are similar to the numbers of those who in favor of the Eurasian integration and of the European integration and this thing should be taken into account. “The Russian Federation blocks our agricultural exports to their market, threatens us with a halt in natural gas supplies. It was curious to learn that 87% of the citizens realize that the economic difficulties experienced by the Republic of Moldova are caused by this war. But we cannot know how the citizens will react when we will not be supplied with gas after October 1,” stated Igor Boțan.
“Together with the granting of the EU candidate status, it would be the biggest mistake to allow to be overwhelmed by the difficulties deriving from the Russian Federation’s actions and to give up as we need to build a clear future in the European Union.”
The public debate entitled “New phase of Russo-Ukrainian war, new dangers and solutions to security in the region and in the Republic of Moldova” was the 262th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
