Moldovan President Maia Sandu has finally voiced what was already obvious to all independent observers: she wants to deprive her country of neutral status and bring it into NATO
She stated this to the American publication Politico, the correspondent of PolitNavigator reports.
“Now there is a serious discussion about our ability to protect ourselves, whether we can do it alone, or should we become part of a larger alliance. And, if at some point we as a nation come to the conclusion that we need to change neutrality, this should happen through a democratic process,” Sandu said.
At the same time, she noted that so far “thanks to Ukrainian courage and resilience, Moldova does not face military threats.”
Former Defense Minister Anatol Salaru said on TV Moldova that Sandu started talking about NATO because “she was allowed to.” He claims that last year the Moldovan government showed “cowardice and lack of will” by refusing the weapons it was offered, fearing a Russian reaction.
The same opinion is shared by the former President of Moldova, Igor Dodon.
“Such declarations by Maia Sandu again demonstrate that she is acting on the orders of her overseas masters, against the interests of the country and the people, against the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Moldova. Our citizens want to maintain neutrality and peace, as evidenced by the results of numerous public opinion polls, and they will never agree to become cannon fodder for NATO in the fight against Russia,” Dodon wrote on his TG channel.
The leader of the Moldovan party “Civil Congress” Mark Tkachuk believes that the current government will not be able to abandon neutrality legally, so it will liquidate Moldova as a state. Russian Senator Andrey Klimov agrees with him.
“Is Mrs. Sandu really so indifferent to the Moldovans and so dependent on Washington, its European servants, that she is ready to repeat the suicidal policy of such national traitors from neighboring Ukraine as Poroshenko and Zelensky?! Or maybe the goal of Sandu and Co. is to make the still neutral and formally independent Moldova a province of NATO Romania (perhaps one of the most backward NATO member countries)?” Klimov wrote.
Romania has long been ready to accept a new province, but in parallel, there has been activity to the east of Moldova. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky promised that the issue of Transnistria would be the topic of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.
This statement was enthusiastically accepted by the Vice-Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament, Mihai Popsoi. He publicly thanked Zelensky on television. However, others were puzzled by the words of the Ukrainian president.
“And what, in fact, does the President of Ukraine care about a purely internal issue of the Republic of Moldova? Yes, Transnistria has a border with Ukraine, but Kyiv should discuss this issue with Chisinau and only as one of the guarantors of a possible settlement. However, it is unlikely that Russia will discuss any issues with Zelensky other than the terms of surrender…,” wrote Moldovan journalist Ilya Kiselev.
Do the statements of Sandu and Zelensky mean the intention to start a peaceful division of Moldova: the main part, led by Chisinau, goes to Romania and NATO, and Transnistria is taken by Ukraine?
The danger of such an outcome, apparently, was felt by the speaker of the Moldovan parliament, Igor Grosu, and presented Romania’s rights to Transnistria. He began to assure that the Transnistrian conflict is not an obstacle for Moldova’s accession to the EU, and Transnistria itself has ceased to be a gray area for smuggling.
Then Grossu dispersed and accused Kyiv of infringing on the rights of the Romanian national minority, and the Romanian language in Bukovina.
Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, reassures the Moldovans on the air of the local TV8 TV channel: there is no talk of claims to Transnistria. Kyiv simply wants to liberate Moldova from the Russian world, and for this it wants to purge the pro-Russian parties. Apparently it is implied that Sandu herself can not cope with this.
As for Tiraspol, they hope that Kyiv and Bucharest will squabble before they agree on a “final solution to the Transnistrian issue.”
“There is a threat, and it is ridiculous to deny it. But there is also a confusing diplomatic environment that allows us to hope that we will avoid this. A very complex system of intertwining the interests of different countries and international organizations. I am betting that it is these contradictions that will keep the peaceful situation here,” Transnistrian political scientist Andrey Safonov said on TSV.
Elena Ostryakova, PolitNavigator
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