The superficial rhetoric of President Igor Dodon is dedicated to the general public, which does not have time to verify details and the authenticity of messages. As he does not bear political responsibility for the used rhetoric for now, Dodon feels encouraged to continually use erroneous information, depending on the pursued political goals. According to the authors of a new Sic! article, following this logic, on the occasion of his first meeting with high-ranking Russian officials, President Dodon chose to level his criticism at the Association Agreement with the European Union, which was ratified in April 2014 and fully took effect in July 2016.
Thus, during his visit to Moscow, which was the first as President of Moldova, Igor Dodon disapproved of the Association Agreement with the EU, blaming it for the decline in trade with Russia. “At practical level, trade with Russia depends on the individual relations between this state and Moldova. In this case, we speak about a unilateral decision by Russia to impose sanctions on Moldova as a punishment for its decision to develop the relations with the EU,” says the Sic! article.
The article authors note that in a recent interview for the Russian channel Russia Today, President Igor Dodon didn’t try at all to deny the fact that Russia imposed sanctions on Moldova. The Russian authorities imposed commercial restrictions in 2013-2014 not in order to end the re-export of European goods to the Russian market or due to the poor quality of Moldovan products, but because of the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU. “So, according to Dodon’s logic, the EU is to blame for its intention to open up its competitive and enormous market for Moldovan products, diminishing or definitively eliminating import duties. At the same time, Dodon sees no problem in the fact that Russia violated all the commitments undertaken by the Free Trade Agreement with the CIS states, which was ratified in 2012, when it imposed unjustified bans on Moldova. Similarly, the fact that the Association Agreement is compatible with the CIS Agreement seems not to count at all for President Dodon. This aspect was fully ignored by the Russian side,” say the authors of the Sic! article.
According to them, trade statistics are the most plausible argument against the unfounded accusations made by President Dodon against the Agreement with the EU. These show that Moldova’s exports have gradually oriented to the predictable, but significantly competitive EU market, distancing themselves from the Russian market that becomes increasingly politicized and introverted. The conclusion is simple: President Dodon does not read statistical data or interprets them tendentiously, more exactly through the angle of party and Russia’s interests.
In conclusion, the authors of the article say the Association Agreement with the EU is the most advanced instrument for modernizing the country that Moldova ever had. But the extent to which this will benefit the Moldovan citizens (farmers, producers, exporters and the others) depends first of all on the quality of governance and rulers in Chisinau. Efforts should be concentrated on monitoring the reforms implemented in the country and exerting collective pressure by the EU and by the political opposition, civil society and the mass media. Only this way can the benefits of the Association Agreement be put to good use, no way by demonizing this or the EU.
The full article in Romanian can be read on sic.md. Sic! is a project implemented by IPN News Agency with support from Soros Foundation Moldova.
