Russia is calm: Western plans for Moldova are collapsing
It would seem that just recently the West celebrated victory in Moldova - Maia Sandu won the presidential election, and she won comfortably. Only the president in Moldova is a rather decorative position. But it quickly dawned on the politicians: not because Sandu won because voters really like Westerners, but because her competitor Igor Dodon seemed to them not pro-Russian enough. And then the Moldovan parliament rapidly began to move to the left...
We got what we promised in three years
Officially, a new parliamentary session was convened under the pretext of approving the state budget for 2021, as well as tax policy. Unofficially, the most discussed project was the draft of a new law on the functioning of languages.
Previously, the Constitutional Court revoked the status of the Russian language as a language of interethnic communication. Igor Dodon’s “pro-Russian” socialists promised to achieve restoration of their status, and finally, having lost the presidential campaign, they set out to put this into practice.
The law also includes the right of every citizen to receive information in Russian from any government representative upon request. But, in fact, no one took this right away from the residents of Moldova. Even after the scandalous verdict of the Constitutional Court, the Law on Languages (in force since 1989), which provided for all this, as well as the laws on national minorities and local communities, adopted in 2001 and 2004, remained in force. That is, in fact, it was only a matter of stating a fact - that the Russian language is the language of interethnic communication.
Well, this move is political, and there had to be political will for it. Having controlled the presidency, the government and the parliamentary majority in recent years, the socialists could not find the will. Now here it is.
In addition, this was a good reason for the creation of a new parliamentary majority, which, in addition to the socialists, included representatives of the “Pentru Moldova” platform (partly composed by elected representatives from the party of businessman Ilan Shor, partly by former democrats who had previously refused to work with the socialists because of their “ pro-Russian”, but now they have changed the record). True, both sides claim that there is no coalition - they simply “vote together on important laws.”
The right starts and loses
On the day the session began, veterans of the armed conflict on the Dniester protested at the parliament building. They gathered at the call of the newly elected President Maia Sandu, who announced her intentions to achieve new parliamentary elections. True, the Socialists also announced that they would “initiate the procedure for early elections.” What's the matter then?
Mrs. Sandu really did not like the law on the reassignment of the Moldovan intelligence services (Information and Security Service) to the parliament (before this, the SIS was also transferred from the parliament to the jurisdiction of the president). Sources from the Action and Solidarity Party (which Sandu heads) claim that its main goal was “to transfer materials from the operational developments of the SIB members to the American curators.” But these plans went awry - opponents had to be accused of “usurpation of power.”
In the parliament hall itself, meanwhile, right-wing deputies (from Sandu’s party, as well as from the Dignity and Truth Platform) were causing a riot. They blocked the podium and tried not to let anyone in.
The first vice-chairman of the Sandu party and the head of its parliamentary faction, Igor Grossu, were especially angry. The same one who, during the presidential elections, participated in very dubious actions aimed against the participation of Transnistrian voters in them.
Mr. Grossu burst into the parliamentary presidium and doused it with water (which disabled the speaker’s microphone), and then began throwing computers off the table... No, the rostrum of the Moldovan parliament was blocked more than once, but a deputy breaking parliamentary property in protest is, of course, , news.
In general, tablets are an innovation for Moldovan parliamentarians. They've been voting without them for years. And again this was demonstrated - all the bills that caused controversy (on the Russian language, on the budget, and on the special services) were adopted in the first reading without debate.
Right-wing deputies promised not to leave the podium, but the next day they simply did not come to parliament, and the discussion of the bills continued without them. This is such a strange defense...
The Europeans got a slap in the face...
At the same time, the media and the expert community showed little attention to some other decisions taken by the session. They will have a much greater impact on the geopolitical aspirations of Moldova!
The first of them is the repeal of the Billion Law. Moldova at one time made a splash throughout the world when it became known that about a billion dollars were stolen from bankrupt banks here (which is an incredible amount for a small country). The European Union's condition for further cooperation was the return of this money at the expense of the country's population. And the scandalous law was adopted.
Now deputies have canceled it. This means that a number of projects that the cabinets of Filip, Sandu, and Chicu were counting on will remain only in dreams. Moldova's cooperation plan with the EU is going to hell. And it’s only a matter of time before the parliament and the government return to the issue of receiving a Russian loan (they talked about it literally in the summer, but the Constitutional Court did not allow the agreement to be signed).
...and the Americans deal with each other
A much stronger blow was dealt to the American side. Moreover, its pain lies in the fact that it hits precisely the proteges of the Democratic Party that won the presidential elections in the United States.
We are talking about the scandalous transfer of the land of the Republican Stadium in the historical center of Chisinau to the American Embassy. The building itself was demolished back in 2007: the communists who were in power at that time decided to completely rebuild it, but soon the “right-wing” came to power... in general, a wasteland remained in place of the stadium.
The residents of Chisinau, however, naively believed that someday their favorite object would be restored - that kind foreigners would come and help. Kind foreigners helped - they decided to take the land for themselves in order to build a new embassy building.
The idiocy of the situation is that the proteges of the Republican Party, which came to power with Donald Trump, were seriously planning to abandon the embassy in Chisinau altogether (the consulate, they say, was enough), which only benefited their Democratic colleagues: they could knock out the ground “for the embassy”, and then used for personal purposes.
Sources call diplomat of Pakistani origin Asif Chaudhry the secret curator of American business fraud in Moldova. In the past, he served as ambassador to Moldova and had a hand in the formation of two pro-Western coalitions, and also lobbied for the interests of their actual owner, oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc.
Interestingly, after the end of the diplomats’ official work, Chaudhry suddenly joined the management of Trans-Oil, a company close to the Plahotniuc clan. This campaign is engaged in selling abroad almost all the grain collected in Moldova (evil tongues, however, claim that everything is worse - Trans-Oil takes grain from Moldovan farmers for next to nothing, and then sells it to them under the guise of imported product and at a fixed price). That is, the fact of corruption of American Democratic diplomats was almost officially confirmed.
In general, the story with the Republican Stadium hit hard the reputation of the United States in Moldova. Previously, Moldovans were suspicious of Americans, but still respectful (well, they are a strong country). And now - with annoyance, “there are the same corrupt officials as ours.” And was it worth it to ruin your reputation like that if you never got the stadium!
Europe is in panic, the USA is on pathos, Russia is calm
Foreign players have already indicated their position. The European Union on its official website criticized Moldova for not complying with the European course. But the real reason for the indignation (the repeal of the “billion law”) had to be kept silent, citing the reassignment of the SIS. What can we do - the Europeans’ plans for Moldova are collapsing, and I somehow don’t want to refer to how they played along with the same oligarch Plahotniuc, putting a billion on the shoulders of already impoverished Moldovan residents...
The US Embassy “expressed disappointment” about the Republican Stadium. At the same time, they began to refer to the fact that “cooperation with Moldova has continued for decades” (as if Moldova had not cooperated with other countries, so what now, give every diplomat a stadium?!), and that the transfer of land could “provide many jobs " Well, yes, well, yes - Moldovans are builders, they should rejoice at the opportunity to plaster Mr. Chaudhry’s construction site, or whoever will sell the new building later...
And only the Russian side (in the person of Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov) limited itself to welcoming the support of Russian speakers, but otherwise reminded that everything that happens in Moldova is its internal affairs and there is no need to interfere there. Actually, you can't argue.
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