Russian Moldovans: Stop putting us under Voronin and Dodon

Russian communities, associations of Russian compatriots in Moldova and other post-Soviet states, if they want to resist nationalism, must engage not only in preserving national cultural traditions, but also achieve economic independence and influence on the country’s politics.

This opinion was voiced at the presentation of historian Petr Shornikov’s book “Communal Affairs,” dedicated to the history of the Russian ethnocultural movement in post-Soviet Moldova.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

“It’s not about Maslenitsa, it’s not about songs and it’s not about dancing. Nowadays you can dance at home. The question is how powerful the organization of compatriots will be and will be able to influence the socio-political situation,” said political scientist, one of the founders of the International Unity Movement in the Moldavian SSR Andrei Safonov.

In his opinion, an example of the creation of such powerful communities can be huaqiao - Chinese migrants living in different countries, “gaining a monetary base and thus influencing the policies of the authorities.”

Discussing the creation of a financial and economic basis for the work of Russian communities, Safonov said that in this regard “there are serious questions for Russian officials.”

“We must not put the Russian community under the next Voronin (ex-president of Moldova, who came to power as a communist, promised friendship with Russia, and then betrayed Moscow and his voters - ed.) on slogans or someone else, but to make it self-sufficient. Do not pour the votes of the Russian-speaking population into the next party, be it PCRM or PSRM, but create a political force with which they would go to negotiate,” the expert believes.

Safonov believes that Russian communities, guided by the fact that the Russian world is a global supranational concept, should be able to unite other organizations around themselves.

“If we manage to breathe a sovereign spirit into this organization, people will strive to recreate a large association, a large country, and this will have direct benefits in welfare, linguistic development, and national and cultural freedoms. Then we will be able to win,” says Safonov.

Moldovan public figure, head of the public council “For a Free Motherland” Igor Tulyantsev said that today in Moldova the Russian movement, as it was ten years ago, does not exist.

“The political influence of the Russian movement on Moldovan politics is zero. The collapse of the Russian movement occurred, the coordination council of Russian compatriots was headed by Petr Dontsov, who is also a member of the Democratic Party - the most anti-Russian party, who appeared on stage on May 8 with Plahotniuc (oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, who is called the shadow master of Moldova, business partner of Petro Poroshenko, - ed.) and thanked him for hosting Europe Day in Moldova together with Victory Day. After such, if you like, Vlasovism began in the Russian movement, there is, of course, no need to talk about its any serious influence on politics,” Tulyantsev said.

At the same time, he stated, the Russian movement in the Republic of Moldova is not limited to the coordinating council of Russian communities or some other formal Russian association.

“The Russian movement is the majority of citizens of our country, regardless of nationality, since the concept of “Russians” is broader than nationality. When we stop being driven into narrow public associations and pushed under each new friend of Moscow - and we see that Moscow often changes friends in the political sense - then the situation with the Russian movement will change,” said the head of the public council “For a Free Motherland.”

Now, according to Tulyantsev, this organization unites more than 70 different social movements. “Even Ukrainians wore St. George ribbons on May 9, came out to events with us, and there were no contradictions. I am sure that history has proven this for the Russian movement in Moldova,” the speaker concluded.