Russia claims that European integration of neighboring states challenges its national security

While the Moldovan and Ukrainian politicians assert that the European tendency of these states doesn’t have to harm the relations with the Russian Federation, the Moscow officials think that the European integration hassles the national security of Russia. These thoughts have been made public on 19th of June, at the international conference “European integration of the East-European countries: socio-economic problems and realities”, which took place in Chisinau. Constantin Griscenko, ex-minister of the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs, declared that Russia doesn’t have to condition the development of its relations with Ukraine, Moldova or any other state that has a tendency towards the EU. The adhesion of these states mustn’t harm the relationship with the strategic eastern partners in any way. “The path to Europe doesn’t exclude maintaining good political and economic relationships with Moscow. Ukraine and Moldova need to restore the partnership with Russia and to establish European perspectives without harming the relations with their neighbors”, said Griscenko. Iuli Kvitinski, first assistant of the president of the International Business Committee of the Russian Parliament, declared that Moscow is obliged to protect its interests and its citizens beyond the boundaries. “It is well-known that together with the adhesion of the states to EU, NATO structures will appear, since ‘the second foot follows the first’. Russia can’t allow itself to have a powerful military organization at its borders”, said Kvitinski. The deputy Dumitru Braghis declared that Moldova is a European state and the process of integration is inevitable. He mentioned both positive and negative aspects of the adhesion. Among the positive ones, the deputy mentioned the creation of a European legislative field; stimulation of foreign investments and reducing the unemployment. Referring to the negative aspects of the integration, Braghis talked about the reduced competition of the newly integrated states, comparing to the western ones. In Moldova’s case, the EU integration will develop problems with the Transnistrian conflict, says Braghis. The deputy Dumitru Diacov mentioned that more than one political force of Moldova aspire for maintaining constructive relationships with Russia. However, Russia is not as attractive as EU for RM, says Diacov. The international conference “European integration of the East-European countries: socio-economic problems and realities” was organized by “Europa Libera - Moldova” Foundation.