President Igor Dodon insists on the importance of Russia as a strategic partner of Moldova and, after becoming President, has boasted that he managed to boost Moldova’s exports to Russia, which increased by 17%, while the posters of the Party of Socialists showed an even larger growth, of 3-4 times. The authors of a new Sic! article say the reality is yet that from commercial viewpoint, Russia is no longer the strategic partner presented by Igor Dodon, IPN reports.
In 2012, Russia accounted for 30.3% of Moldova’s exports, while in 2016 the figure declined to 11.4%, which is comparable to Italy’s share of 9.7%. The President has never yet paid to Italy the same attention as to Russia.
On the other hand, Romania became Moldova’s most important commercial partner with a share of 25.1%. Even if one quarter of Moldova’s exports go over the Prut, which is more than twice compared with the exports to Russia, Igor Dodon is by far not so caring towards the Romanian partners. On the contrary, his statements were often rather bellicose towards the Western neighbors.
“Looking at the shares of the EU and the CIS in general, we see that 65.1% of Moldova’s exports go to the EU and only 20.3% go to the CIS, which is over three times less. Even if we refer strictly to the agrifood exports, as Igor Dodon assumes the role of defender of farmers who do not have where to export apples and plums, we see that the share of Russia and the whole Commonwealth of Independent States declined dramatically, while of the EU increased vertiginously: CIS from 55% in 2008 to 19.2% in 2016; EU from 31.1% to 57.9% in the same period,” says the Sic! article.
In fact, last year Moldova exported more agrifood products to “other countries” – 22.88% – than to the CIS. It happened at a time when the total value of exports in this category rose form ~590 to ~890 million US dollars. Even if trade with Russia and the CIS remains significant, its importance is evidently not vital. Regrettably, the politically-motivated bans showed that Russia is not a reliable commercial partner. A larger figure of the trade with Russia, as Igor Dodon wants, means greater vulnerability to the Kremlin’s maneuvers.
The full article can be read here (Romanian).
Sic! is a fact-checking, synthesis and analysis project implemented by IPN with support from Soros Moldova Foundation and the Black Sea Trust.
