The new president of the Democratic Party (PDM) Vlad Plahotniuc addressed a message to the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, calling on him to improve American relations with Russia by an article published on the website of the U.S. television channel Fox News on January 7. In the article, placed in the opinion section of the portal foxnews.com, the “executive coordinator” of the governing coalition of Moldova, voices yet hope that this will not “come at the expense of our dream for deeper ties to the West”. In the Romanian language, the article appeared on the website of the PDM leader the next day. Ignoring the suppositions that this message could or couldn’t be a preoccupation in this moment of transition for the new White House administration, Sic! is trying to verify several of the assertions made by Vlad Plahotniuc, IPN reports.
In a new article on sic.md entitled “Vlad Plahotniuc between East and West”, the authors say the leader of the PDM, expressing his view in the name of the Republic of Moldova, states his concern about a possible change in the situation in the Republic of Moldova following the ‘normalization’ of relations between the U.S. and Russia announced by Donald Trump. In the context of the confrontation between the East and West, Vlad Plahotniuc speaks about the pressure that is exerted on Moldova. According to the Sic! authors, the paradox is that even if he makes it clear that we do not like to be put in the situation to choose sides, the coordinator of the ruling alliance contradicts himself by saying that Moldova doesn’t want to be pulled back into Moscow’s orbit.
“The complexity of the verification of this assertion resides in the fact that there is a common general view in this regard of those who now rule in the Republic of Moldova, at a time when one of the branches of the power, the presidency, is held by Igor Dodon – a politician who declares himself a supporter of closer ties with Moscow and of a ‘strategic partnership’ with the Russian Federation. We thus have to bank on the ‘sincerity’ of Vlad Plahotniuc’s assertion,” says the Sic! article.
The authors also say that the leader of the PDM wants to make himself understood by the great powers of the world and transmits them the message that Moldova does not want to be mired in a new cold war and to suffer after choosing to continue on the path of European integration. On the one hand, Vlad Plahotniuc says the Moldovans are mainly pro-Western, which is not yet true if we look at the results of the most recent sociological surveys. On the other hand, the president of the PDM speaks for the first time about “our cultural and historic affinity with Russia”. It means that we, the Moldovans, even if we are pro-European and pro-American, are spiritually similar to the Russians.
Instead of conclusion, Sic! notes that Vlad Plahotniuc’s message addressed to President-elect Donald Trump actually transmits messages also to the EU, to the East-Europeans and to Moscow.
The full article in Romanian is available on sic.md. Sic! is a project implemented by IPN News Agency with the support of Soros Foundation Moldova.
