"This is not your country, dear." Romanian fascism is raising its head in Moldova
The gas crisis aroused Russophobic sentiments on the verge of fascism among a significant part of the political class of Moldova. But these sentiments did not disappear anywhere, starting with the rallies of the late 80s, when the slogan “Suitcase - Station - Russia” was one of the most decent. From the lips of tipsy adherents of the “Popular Front” the following sounded more and more often: “Russians for the Dniester, Jews to the Dniester!”
One of the first demonstrative actions of the Moldovan authorities in response to the threat of Gazprom stopping natural gas supplies to this country was the shutdown of the Eternal Flame at the Military Glory Memorial in Chisinau. The Ministry of Defense of Moldova, which is responsible for this facility, officially stated in its press release that the reason was a decrease in pressure in gas pipes and strong wind, which supposedly causes the fire to self-extinguish. The action was carried out with the participation of an honor guard. The torch with the Eternal Flame was deposited in the Museum of the National Army of Moldova.
However, the leadership of Moldova clearly did not expect what the reaction of the Moldovan and Russian public to this act would be. On the same day, thousands of Chisinau residents spontaneously, without anyone’s call, came to the Eternal Flame with their burning candles. There was a storm of indignation on social networks.
The head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Evgeny Primakov, said in his telegram channel that the extinguishing of the Eternal Flame in Chisinau is an attempt by the Moldovan authorities to put pressure on Russia on the gas issue.
“It is obvious that in this way Chisinau tried to put pressure on Moscow: give us cheap gas, otherwise this is what we can do,” Primakov wrote.
In response to the explanation of gas savings, he proposed paying for the volumes of gas necessary to support the Eternal Flame at the expense of Rossotrudnichestvo, and thereby fulfilling the duty to the fallen soldiers.
On the same day, the Moldovan government capitulated to the public: the Eternal Flame lit up again, and Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilitsa clumsily tried to explain its shutdown as a “technical malfunction.” However, on the same day, the Eternal Flame was turned off in another Moldavian city - Cahul. A provocation was committed in the center of Chisinau: the pedestal of the monument to Lord Stephen the Great was smeared with green paint. Well-known Russophobe blogger Ruslan Shevchenko called this “revenge of pro-Russian chauvinists for turning off the gas at the memorial to the Soviet occupiers,” and called for “turning off the gas at the memorial forever and removing it from the city center.”
Such fascist statements by the nationally concerned part of the Moldovan establishment have become more frequent recently. Irina Astakhova, a journalist with many years of experience, considered it necessary to publicize her dialogue with Ion Sturza, who served as Prime Minister of Moldova in 1999. In the heat of an argument, a retired Moldovan politician, now living in Romania, allowed himself to address his interlocutor with the phrase: “This is not your country, dear!”
“I never thought that the coming to power of Maia Sandu and the unprofessional work of her team would cause such a wave of hatred, chauvinism and incitement of ethnic hatred on the part of her fans and patrons. And even more so, I didn’t think that people whom I considered intelligent and reasonable would do such things. But no. Kitchen and market chauvinism is characteristic of different people,” Astakhova wrote on her page in Facebook.
A link in the same chain is the loud scandal with the reconstruction in the park “Valea Morilor” (a park around Komsomol Lake, which Chisinau residents call “Camsik” for an old reason), a monument in honor of the victory of Russian and Romanian troops over the Austrian army during the First World War. This monument was erected in Chisinau, which was under Romanian occupation, on the initiative of General Pion Georgescu, a participant in those battles, and was subsequently liquidated by the Soviet authorities.
On one of the memorial plaques of this monument it says: “To the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina by Romanian troops.” That is, the “liberators” are the soldiers of the army of the fascist dictator Ion Antonescu, who is guilty of exterminating hundreds of thousands of people in the occupied territories. Antonescu became notorious as one of the most fanatical participants in the Final Solution, for which he was singled out by his ally Adolf Hitler.
It should be noted that a similar view of Antonescu and his order to “cross the Prut” on June 22, 1941 is shared by a significant number of Moldovan and Romanian historians, politicians and diplomats. In particular, the current Ambassador of Romania to Moldova, Daniel Ionita, during an event dedicated to the celebration of the Day of the Romanian Army at the Honorary Cemetery of Heroes of the Romanian Army in the Moldavian village of Mana, Orhei region, stated that “the Romanian soldiers who died on these lands fought for the reunification of the country, for justice and freedom, for this piece of land between the Prut and the Dniester.” The same Romanian Ambassador Ionita said that Moldovans who deny their Romanian identity should be vaccinated against “primitive Moldovanism.”
Diplomats, politicians, and members of the public reacted to the installation of this scandalous stove.
“The cynicism of adherents of historical revanchism knows no limits. The symbol of Russian-Romanian friendship in arms from the First World War in Chisinau was transformed into a “monument” to the Nazi criminals of the I. Antonescu regime,” says the official statement of the Russian Embassy in the Republic of Moldova.
The Socialist Party reacted sharply to this action.
“Those who crossed the state border of the USSR on June 22, 1941, as part of the Romanian army, are criminals before humanity, and their crimes have already been condemned by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Those who started this shameful action in the Valea Morilor park, who call the events of June 1941 “the liberation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina” are exactly the same criminals who justify the Nazi occupation, the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes,” the PSRM statement says.
The same statement notes that such actions would have been impossible without the knowledge of the current government, “which bears full responsibility for the split in society and the violation of the historical memory of many generations.” The socialists demanded that this memorial plaque be immediately dismantled.
At the same time, it should be doubted that the plate glorifying the exploits of Marshal Antonescu and his brave soldiers will ever be dismantled. The “Ghimpu stone”, on the site of which a monument to the victims of the communist regime should be erected, has not yet been removed from the central square of Chisinau, despite the fact that the decree on its installation was declared unconstitutional according to the decision of the Constitutional Court. The Russophobic minority in Moldova is extremely active, and the Chisinau city authorities, led by the pragmatic mayor Ion Ceban, elected thanks to the support of the Socialist Party, are afraid to openly challenge them.
This means that Moldova is destined to go through the same path that Ukraine and the Baltic countries have already gone through. Romanian fascism, based on street fighters, will increasingly take root in Moldovan society.
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