“This danger is becoming more and more frightening. Under the mentioned circumstances, dropping the ego and discreetly assuming the initiative to communicate with PAS would be the only behavior of the united pro-European opposition worthy of being supported by the voters disappointed with this party. Obviously, there can be no question of sparing PAS. On the contrary, efforts must be directed towards repairing the made errors and designing a joint action plan for this year’s presidential election, as well as for next year’s parliamentary elections. Otherwise, the revenge of the pro-Russian political forces, which will definitively annihilate the European course of the Republic of Moldova, is very likely...”
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European integration vs. paradigm shift

By all appearances, the political forces in the country and the oligarchic forces abroad have started preparations for the presidential election that is due to take place towards the end of this year. The stake of this election is huge – the regional integration course of the Republic of Moldova. It is seriously wrong to think that after obtaining the status of candidate country for European integration and after the adoption of the decision to open negotiations in this regard, they are making the European integration irreversible. The two achievements are absolutely necessary, but insufficient to achieve the planned objective.

The internal and external opponents – the pro-Russian parties, fugitive oligarchs and Putinist Russia - have long ago started preparations for changing the integrationist paradigm, with a very broad arsenal of subversive tools at their disposal. Obviously, Russia is the main actor of the confrontation, for now behind the scenes. Russia acts on three dimensions: a) formation of the agenda of the pro-Russian parties in the Republic of Moldova, consolidating, financing and ensuring media coverage for these through the fifth column; b) influencing of elections to the European Parliament and the parliaments of a number of EU states, including Romania, by supporting Eurosceptic parties, which could hamper the European integration of the new candidate states, discouraging voters in these states; c) continuation of the criminal war in Ukraine, constantly undermining security and making it impossible to attract investments for regional economic recovery.

The declared and substantiated goal of the Russian elites is to destabilize and spread chaos in the region, but especially in the former Soviet republics so that, under the weight of hardship and fear, the citizens of the post-Soviet republics resign themselves and accept to be part of the Russian World. The events of the past two years leave no doubt that the Putinist regime generates regional destabilization in order to take the region under the control of its own vertical of power, directly or through proxies. The system of political coordinates in which they act is multidimensional, comprising: irredentism, revanchism, the pretense of building a new world order , etc.

Goal of Shor’s visit to Moscow

The recent visit to Moscow paid by the fugitive criminal, former persona non-grata from 2016, Ilan Shor, launched the preparations and hierarchization of the pro-Russian forces for the upcoming presidential election in the Republic of Moldova. Here is further evidence that when the circumstances call for it, the Russian elites open their doors wide to a confirmed criminal who can be useful to them. It’s true that Ilan Shor lived up to expectations. Thus, during the mentioned visit, he for the first time in his political career openly spoke in favor of Moldova’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU): “Today, for Moldova, I have said this many times and I will repeat it here with great pleasure, the only salvation is the open entry into the Eurasian Economic Union. Because today the Eurasian Economic Union and Russia are the only friend and savior for the Republic of Moldova.”

The given statement is a sample of deceitful servility. There is no party document or statement by Shor and his followers that ever talked about their geopolitical or integrationist preferences. On the contrary, as long as Igor Dodon – the leader of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) – was the main pro-Russian politician, Ilan Shor constantly pleaded in favor of the so-called pro-Moldovan balanced foreign policy. The last proof in this regard is also the recent interview for Deutsche Welle, in which Shor confirmed that he is unswervingly in favor of equidistant relations with the East and the West. We see that his visit to Moscow cardinally changed his vision.

But what is the cause of Shor’s geopolitical metamorphosis? The answer is on the surface – he was crowned in Moscow as leader and coordinator of the pro-Russian forces in the Republic of Moldova. Evidently, on this occasion, the ban on his entry into Russia was lifted. So, Shor took Dodon’s place, the latter proving to be a notorious loser as in the last four years he lost everything that could be lost – the presidential election of 2020, the parliamentary elections of 2021 and the local elections of 2023. Moreover, Dodon revealed the PSRM’s source of funding and Russia’s constant efforts to federalize the Republic of Moldova. Such blunders cannot be forgiven by the strategic partner, even despite flattery. Obviously, with Dodon one cannot carry out strategic projects, but he and his party can be attached to pro-Russian projects managed by much more skillful persons, such as criminal Ilan Shor.  

Secondary role of Dodon and the Socialists

Ilan Shor, unlike Dodon and PSRM, through nonstop protests and so-called political projects copiously financed from foreign sources, proved to be an extremely dangerous destabilizer for the Republic of Moldova. The efficiency of Shor’s subversive actions is highlighted by the fact that he controls whole regions of the Republic of Moldova – Gagauzia, Taraclia, Orhei, and Balti. Moreover, Ilan Shor proved to be an honest thief. Thus, when the responsible Moldovan bodies, following effective investigations, established that the Sorist projects are financed from Russia, estimating them only at about one billion lei, Shor intervened immediately to deny the information, insisting that the invoked amount was underestimated as this was much higher.

The question that arises is: why does Ilan Shor admit that he illegally finances, from obscure sources, political parties and so-called investment projects in the Republic of Moldova, insisting on the illegal use of huge sums? Basically, through his statements about the amounts used to destabilize the Republic of Moldova, Ilan Shor makes a public report to his illegal backers, lest they somehow believe that he is stealing them. Well, how can these backers not trust such an honest thief and crown him as the leader of the Moldovan opposition? After all, even recent opinion polls, which show that he equaled Dodon in rating, justify his pretense. Moreover, Ilan Shor has another great advantage - he proved to be multifaceted. Thus, he did not see a problem to appear in Moscow to solve the future problems of the Republic of Moldova, exactly when the HAMAS delegation was to be there, to solve the problems of the State of Israel, whose citizen Ilan Shor is. 

Under the mentioned circumstances, the role of PSRM in the political life of the Republic of Moldova remains an important one, but still secondary to the Sorist project. In order not to completely discourage PSRM, its leaders were invited two weeks later to participate in the forum “For the Freedom of Nations”, organized by Russia's ruling party – United Russia. It is hallucinating, but when about 15% of the territory of the Republic of Moldova is occupied by Russia, and the neighboring state, Ukraine, is militarily aggressed and hundreds of thousands of its people are being killed, PSRM takes part in discussions about the freedom of nations, together with the initiators of the aggression. It is not possible that the PSRM leaders don’t know that the purpose of the military aggression is the extermination of Ukraine and Ukrainians, their fault being that they exist. This is according to the statements with direct speech of deputy Oleg Matveychev, a representative and ideologue of United Russia, which hosted the forum attended by the PSRM leaders.

Conclusions

While the opposition pro-European political forces are barely trying to unite on a horizontally structured platform, the pro-Russian ones, to all appearances, are already enrolled in a hierarchical body, subordinated to the strategic partner.

After the visit to Moscow and the treatment applied to him, the coordinator and treasurer of the pro-Russian forces can be no other than Ilan Shor, who over the past two years has demonstrated his efficiency in destabilizing the political situation in the Republic of Moldova. The talents of the new coordinator of the Eurasian opposition were demonstrated more than once, for example, when he managed to participate in the robbing of the banking system of the Republic of Moldova and in parallel to be worthy of the support of a fairly large segment of the electorate, which shares the life position – he steals, but also gives to us! Several important regions of Moldova are already dominated by this pragmatic attitude imbedded through Shor's investment projects. Since it is not known when the law enforcement agencies will become able to block the inflows of money intended as financing for Shor’s projects, we can expect that this will have new electoral successes.

In the upcoming electoral competition of the pro-European and Eurasian opposition forces, the latter have the great advantage of being exempted from complying with the rules and norms regarding the use of illegal media and financial resources from Russian sources, as it was established by SIS and admitted by Ilan Shor. Moreover, in competitions without rules and scruples, hierarchically built bodies have additional unsuspected advantages over horizontally organized bodies, where decisions are made with great difficulty.

Taking into account the proverbial incapacity of the ruling party – PAS, we cannot exclude the possibility that the pro-European opposition will become a much more credible opponent of PAS, potentially becoming the useful idiot of the pro-Russian opposition. This danger is becoming more and more frightening. Under the mentioned circumstances, dropping the ego and discreetly assuming the initiative to communicate with PAS would be the only behavior of the united pro-European opposition worthy of being supported by the voters disappointed with this party. Obviously, there can be no question of sparing PAS. On the contrary, efforts must be directed towards repairing the made errors and designing a joint action plan for this year’s presidential election, as well as for next year’s parliamentary elections. Otherwise, the revenge of the pro-Russian political forces, which will definitively annihilate the European course of the Republic of Moldova, is very likely.