Dodon in Moscow: Russia does not choose the lesser evil, it simply has no other choice
Moldovan President Igor Dodon successfully flew to Moscow last week. During his two-day visit to the Russian capital, he not only attended the Victory Parade as an honored guest and watched as “75 heroes” of the honor guard company of the National Army of the Republic of Moldova marched across Red Square, but also discussed important issues of bilateral relations with the leadership of the Russian Federation.
Dodon said that he agreed with Vladimir Putin to extend benefits for duty-free deliveries of Moldovan goods, solve the problem of issuing permits for Moldovan road carriers delivering goods from Moldova to Russia, and most importantly, to resume negotiations on providing a Russian loan in the amount of 200 million euros to support Moldovan economy.
Let us remind you that Russia was previously ready to issue this loan to Moldova - in April the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova ratified the corresponding agreement. Opposition MPs, however, then called the agreement “political” and dangerous for the country. They submitted a request to the country's Constitutional Court asking for clarification on whether this agreement threatens the security of Moldova. May 7 The Constitutional Court ruledthat the agreement on the Russian loan contradicts the Constitution because of the clause that stipulates state guarantees for the debts of Moldovan private companies to Russian banks.
And now the parties begin negotiations on the loan again. On June 27, Igor Dodon published a letter on Facebook from Deputy Minister of Finance of Russia Timur Maksimov, which states that the parties are ready to “resume bilateral consultations with the Moldovan side on the issue of providing a state financial loan to the government of Moldova in the amount of €200 million.”
It is obvious that Igor Dodon and the Socialist Party close to him will continue to use Russia’s financial and political support to retain power, and Moscow has no choice but to support the current president and the PSRM. A PolitNavigator correspondent talks about this with the director of the Institute of Socio-Political Research and Regional Development, Igor Shornikov.
PolitNavigator: Igor Dodon resolved all the issues that he had planned in Moscow. Can the visit be considered a success? Will it happen that the Russian loan will be “wrapped up” again in the Constitutional Court of Moldova?
Igor Shornikov: Indeed, given the very difficult situation of the socialists and Igor Dodon in their homeland, the results of his visit to Moscow indicate a high degree of support for the current Moldovan authorities from Russia. There is a positive trend on all the issues that the President of Moldova promised to resolve. But moral support is even more important here. Russia shows that, no matter what, it is ready to support the population of Moldova at a difficult moment and is ready to conduct a dialogue about this with Igor Dodon.
Even the story of the failed Russian loan now looks like a win for Dodon. The trap that right-wing parties tried to set for him in the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova by blocking the Russian loan turned out to be not entirely effective. A country experiencing a colossal economic downturn urgently needs “cheap” money. And it’s not so important who you take them from, the main thing is that the lending conditions are feasible. Russia offered good conditions. The motives of the right-wingers, who put their own political interests above the interests of the state, have probably become obvious to many. At the same time, the promised funding from the EU began to be conditioned by political demands - the adoption of the Moldovan law on NPOs in the version desired by Brussels. Against the backdrop of a blocked Russian loan, this story looks especially unpleasant.
Russia confirmed its readiness to provide Moldova with a loan of 200 million euros and invited the Moldovan side to make changes to the text of the agreement. This suggests that Moscow understands the never-ending political fever in Moldova; Russia does not want the socio-economic situation in this country to worsen and is ready to provide assistance.
The question is whether Moldova will be able to take advantage of this help. Of course, Moldovan parties may try to use the topic of the Russian loan in their political struggle, but the matter most likely will not reach the Constitutional Court. The problem is that the issue of lending to Moldova by Russia is a geopolitical issue. The West cannot allow this to happen, so it cannot be ruled out that the Chicu government, which is already based on its word of honor, will soon be removed.
PolitNavigator: Dodon will probably use photographs with Putin in his election campaign, as has happened before. Will this help the current president, who will have to fight alone against everyone, in the upcoming elections?
Igor Shornikov: Undoubtedly. The rating of the PSRM and Igor Dodon personally is based almost exclusively on pro-Russian sentiments in Moldovan society, on the trust of Moldovans in Vladimir Putin personally. No matter what mistakes the Moldovan president and his party make, if Dodon goes to Moscow and meets with Putin, people will vote for him.
PolitNavigator: It is clear from everything that the Kremlin supports Igor Dodon, despite his “multi-vectorism”. Is Russia choosing the lesser of two evils in Moldova?
Igor Shornikov: The political class in Moldova has long lost the trust of the population. Partly for this reason, geopolitics has become an integral feature of domestic political struggle. Parties in Moldova attract voters not with their own development programs, but with promises to improve life at the expense of their great neighbors - Russia or the European Union. Now in Moldova there is only one parliamentary party that promised its voters the development of relations with Russia, all the others are focused on the EU. Russia does not choose the lesser evil, it simply has no choice but to support the socialists.
Who has to choose in Moldova is the West. Almost all parliamentary and extra-parliamentary forces are fighting for the location of Washington and Brussels here. Many observers fear that even the socialists, despite their pro-Russian rhetoric, are ready to offer their services to the West. The example of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova and the “pro-Russian” Voronin, who have sunk into oblivion, who betrayed their voters and turned the country from East to West, is still quite fresh.
PolitNavigator: Not everyone in Moldova approved of the trip of Igor Dodon and Moldovan military personnel to the Victory Parade in Moscow. Someone even called this visit a betrayal. The Great Victory, it seems, is not a unifying principle in the Republic of Moldova, on the basis of which the future could be built. Why is this happening?
Igor Shornikov: Participation in the Victory Parade is not an obligation, but a privilege. Moldovans, just like other peoples of the Soviet Union, contributed to the defeat of Hitler's Germany and rightfully consider themselves heirs of the victors. The Moldovans, unlike the Romanians, were never fascist satellites. But some politicians in Moldova, and with them a significant number of young people, consider themselves heirs of the defeated Romanians. For them, Victory Day becomes almost a day of national humiliation.
The problem is that for decades, Moldovan schools have been teaching an anti-scientific course on the “history of Romanians,” according to which Moldovans are declared to belong to the “Romanian family.” The Second World War in textbooks is viewed from the perspective of Romania, which fought against the Soviet Union and entered the war with the aim of territorial acquisitions.
Moldova has long been pursuing a systematic policy to distort and erase the memory of the Great Patriotic War among the younger generation. The education system of the Republic of Moldova, hundreds of non-governmental organizations, dozens of media funded from Romania, the EU and the USA work for this. We see the results.
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